


Complex Emotions (or Lincoln's Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Reality)

by FiveAM



Category: The Loud House (Cartoon)
Genre: Alcohol, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt, Family Drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-02-16 09:55:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18689164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiveAM/pseuds/FiveAM
Summary: After Lori drunkenly rapes Lincoln in his sleep, his mind starts to break, each of his sisters ponder what he actually means to them, and everyone learns the harsh truth of being unable to change the past in the form of kids being conceived.  Follow the Loud siblings through a deconstructed version of the Sin Kids AU, where Lincoln's children are conceived under a much more controversial lens.  Rated Mature for many reasons.





	1. The First Attack

**Author's Note:**

> The Sin Kids AU has hooked my interest over the past few weeks, mostly thanks to the fanart I've seen. If there is one type of story, though, that I wish existed, it's a deconstructionist fic that calls out the inherent issues with incest and what it can do to familial relationships. I'm sorry, but as someone whose religious, I just can't bring myself to support and cheer for incestuous relationships. Yes, I realize that may be a contradicting statement, considering I've been seeking out good fan works for this universe, but the story potential, character interpretations, and artistry are just too good to pass up. Besides, the kids, themselves, aren't the ones that did anything wrong. That would fall on Lincoln and his sisters.
> 
> It was with all of those thoughts that led to this story being made. A story where Lincoln's reasons for sleeping with his sisters aren't tied to romantic love, but a broken psyche caused from a sisters' bad decision-making.
> 
> Most of that comes later, though. For now, enjoy the first chapter. Hope you like it. Thanks for giving it a try, at least.
> 
> Warning: rape of a minor lies ahead. Read at your own risk.

Alcohol is one hell of a substance. One minute, you feel perfectly fine, and for some people, better than before. Next thing you know, however, you’re stumbling anywhere and everywhere, you have no idea what it means to see straight. It also makes you do and say things that were better left to the mind. Alcohol is both a truth-telling serum and a very aggressive wingman, constantly goading you to do things that shouldn’t be done, putting your own satisfaction ahead of any and everyone else. Depending on someone’s tolerance, one can either be smart enough to fight it or just give in completely to whatever desires you feel.

For the Loud family, they were in the latter category. One big rule Rita and Lynn Sr put themselves on was to keep the house as dry as they possibly could, so as to keep their kids on the straight and narrow and not tempt them in any way. They were fairly certain their kids had about as good a tolerance as they did, and they were the adults. Yes, both parents had extremely weak tolerances when it came to alcohol. It didn’t take a whole lot to get them drunk, and once they were, steer clear of any bedroom, bathroom stall, or unlocked backseat when both of them were in the same building. Seven, count ‘em, SEVEN of their kids were the products of drunken sexcapades the two partook in, all of whom were Leni, Luna, Luan, Lincoln, the twins, and Lisa.

The kids were lucky their parents hadn't put themselves in truly dangerous situations because of drinking. Neither of the two parents ever drove drunk and they never had a case of waking up nude in a back alley somewhere covered in bruises. The worst they ever suffered was waking up in the back of Vanzilla, naked, and a flashlight being shown in by a police officer, citing them for indecent exposure. It was that incident that convinced them they should limit their drinking to when they were home and the kids wouldn’t see it, so after the kids went to bed. 

That rule had loopholes in it, however, and one was that it never applied to the kids when they brought their own drinks home. They never enforced a dry rule on their children, hoping that strong parenting and talks about alcohol would stave off any bad decision making by them. They could not have been more wrong about that, proven when Lori had her first drink. She had come home from college to celebrate her 21st birthday with her family and wanted to celebrate with drinking beer with her parents.

They had several, and the two parents celebrated with yet another run to the bedroom (though they could keep calm about having another child since Rita had a tubal ligation done and Lynn got a vasectomy done after Lily’s birth to prevent future pregnancies. Eleven was as far as those two were willing to go). Lori, meanwhile, had the fun of getting drunk for the first time as a Loud. Her vision was horribly impaired, she didn't know what it meant to stand up straight. She was also feeling really hot and bothered. There was a sudden need for her to just run towards the nearest man and take all of her clothes off, letting him do whatever he wanted to her. If she were at college, she would've just ran straight to Bobby and let him do his thing, that wasn't who she wanted right now. In her drunken state, she carried her desires to an extremely dangerous territory, her very drunken mind prioritizing her own lust over social taboos and the law. She wasn’t lusting after her boyfriend, Bobby. She was lusting after her own fifteen-year-old brother, Lincoln.

It made absolutely no sense. Lori was always satisfied when she and Bobby did it, and she was never the type to want sex on a frequent basis. She always put focus on her goals, working hard studying and being active in the clubs she was a part of on campus. Heck, she even found a new passion in persuing a business management degree, actually enjoying the classes she was taking for it and scoring highly on every test she took. Everything was going good for her. She had no reason to go after Lincoln...or at least, not when she was sober. 

See, subconsciously, Lori had always had a really small and hidden affection for him, one that wasn’t an affection that an older sister would normally have for their brother. She had plenty of affection in him being her little brother, and it was the only affection that showed when she was alert and conscious. However, deep down, there was a sense of desire for her to make sure Lincoln was being treated right. Her bonding with him made her care much more about him and wanted to make sure he was happy. If anything bad happened to him, she would be out for blood. Whenever she went to Bobby’s, she would stink-eye Ronnie Anne if she thought the girl was planning to prank Lincoln. 

Her appreciation for him had developed into something more than simple affection for her younger sibling. She had officially developed a brother complex.

She began worrying a lot more when she wasn’t around him. Would he go where he wasn’t supposed to? Would he get shot? What about stabbed? Maybe someone would try to drown him in a fountain and she wouldn’t be around to help him. She recognized that these thoughts were not like how she used to think about her brother and locked herself into the bathroom to have a silent chat with herself. She looked at herself in the mirror and started to remind herself that Lincoln was a good kid who wouldn’t take the dangerous routes. He cared about his sisters and they cared about him. It would be silly to think that he couldn’t make the right decisions if she, or any other sister, weren’t around to protect him from all the dangers of the outside world. This made her think to herself ‘Look at me. I’m literally becoming mom.’ 

She knew she couldn’t protect him from everything the world had to offer, but she could at least start with herself. She made it a point to never try to hurt Lincoln in any way, but instead be the person he could run to if he ever needed someone to comfort him. She wasn’t always the most approachable person with how authoritive she could be before she turned 18.

In the present, though, she was drunk, far too much so to remember her promise to not hurt him. Instead, she felt like she should make it up to Lincoln for all those years of hurting him. One thing Lincoln was always good at that his sisters weren’t was his willingness to correct any and all mistakes he ever made. His sisters could be touch and go about righting their wrongs, but when it came to Lincoln, it was all but fully guaranteed. Two instances, in particular for her, fueled this thought. The first was the time where he covered for her at her job after he abused her kindness. He skipped out on a party he wanted to go to so she could go to the dance that was the very reason she got the job to begin with. She also remembered when he stole Bobby away from her, always acting like bros while she was just the third wheel. Seeing her upset made him give Bobby back so she could be with the love of her life again. She saw him as the best of them in her current state, and she wanted to make it up to him for every time she didn’t try to fix things with him. What better way to do that than to give herself up entirely to him?

She found Lincoln passed out in his room, apparently a side-effect of one of Lisa’s experiments he agreed to test for her. Lisa gave him an ointment that was supposed to extend how long the human body could go without water for several weeks. A side-effect was that it knocked you out into a deep sleep while it analyzed the subject’s personal body and activate accordingly so the person could function like they normally do. 

Lori tried to wake him up, but it was of no use. While she couldn’t pleasure him while he was awake, at least his unconscious body could still enjoy it. She proceeded to say “You wouldn’t mind, right Lincoln? This is what you deserve, after all” in a very slurred manner, took her clothes off, and went about doing whatever she thought he would like on top of him.

She thought they would both enjoy it. He gets to feel amazing and she gets to feel good about making things up to her brother. So why was she crying, then? Rather than revel in the feeling, she was acting like she was desperate, but not for sex. She wanted forgiveness. Alcohol, as stated earlier, is a truth telling serum, giving the people who drink enough to suppress any sort of negative emotion the chance to actually speak what was on their mind. In her past, she thought she was horrible to him, one of the worst sisters ever, constantly threatening him with physical violence, always trying to control him in very strict ways, taking advantage of him. To the outside eye, however, that didn’t seem too bad if you got the whole picture. They both were selfish and tried to get the other to do things for their own gain. That’s just regular sibling dynamics, really, and besides, they weren’t situations that could be categorized as dangerous, and they still cared immensely for one another. Yet alcohol was also a wingman, and a very bad one at that. It could make someone really overthink things if they didn’t have their emotions fully in check. This was the chance for a person’s inner demons to take hold and drive them to do something most sober people would never do. She truly believed she had failed him in the past…and she thought that this was the best way to make it up to him. 

She started putting more effort into what she was doing. At first, it was slow and steady, doing what she thought he would like the most. In drunken desperation, however, she started ramping up her efforts, going faster and trying to push him deeper in. This increased effort started to get the better of her, and she started to moan, absentmindedly forgetting that all of their sisters were home that night.

The first sister to take notice was Lucy, the moaning making her think there was a ghost in the house. Score! She quickly closed her poetry book and headed out of her and Lynn’s room to follow the sound to its source. She thought this was going to be great, validation for all her hard work at trying to contact the spirits for so long and finally getting a response in the physical world. What would she ask? What was the ghost like? Did they know great grandma Harriet? Oh, the stories that the spirit could regale her. She was so excited.

…That is until she made it to the source of the noise. It was coming from her brother’s room. Was the ghost actually there for him? Being the ghost-lover that she was, she had to peak her head into his room to find out. Once she saw what was actually making that noise, she never felt such a rush of fear flow through her in her life. Her legs had no feeling whatsoever, her voice was gone, and she felt like she was going to start violently throwing up. 

Despite being a year shy of a teenager, she was still around the age when puberty started for girls, which meant the talks about everything sex-related started for her. The usual beginner’s talks of conflicting emotions, bodily changes, and things of that nature were starting to be discussed with her by her mom, or some of her sisters if they thought they could help her. That said, even she knew what it meant to give consent, and she didn’t see any sign of Lincoln’s body consciously moving along with Lori’s, not helped by seeing his head lifelessly bobbing around. Poor Lucy was just starting out with puberty, and here she was witnessing two of the most reviled types of sexual encounters. This was incest, and to make it worse, rape.

None of the other girls had noticed this noise, yet, having been too caught up in activities in their own rooms to care too much, or in the case of Lynn and the twins, having fun outside. Lucy knew her parents were drunk which usually led to them falling asleep earlier and being really hard to wake up until the next morning. Besides, they were on the floor below anyway, so too much time would pass getting them. She had a range of sisters to call on, but she didn’t know which one, so to get their attention, she simply started banging on the walls in the hallway. Part of this was to get her sisters’ attention, but also try to let some aggression out of her system. She would’ve wanted to be the one to help Lincoln, but her size compared to Lori would’ve made it impossible to fight her off. She wanted to help, yet all she could do was watch as her brother got abused. 

Both Luna and Luan heard the banging and walked out of their room to see Lucy slapping and punching the wall, noticing tears falling down her face.

“Hey Lucy, you okay?” The two older sisters were quick to run over to her and Luan tried to calm her down.

“Lincoln…” she responded. “He needs our help!” She said this with as much emotion as she could while practically dragging her two older sisters to Lincoln’s room. Now, they could clearly hear the moaning, which they thought was coming from Lucy doing any number of occult activities she often did. The moans clued them in on what was happening, and in the span of less than a second, Luna put two and two together, her big sister mode kicked in, and she sprinted right into Lincoln’s room just as Lori had reached climax, Lincoln’s body having done so before the sisters entered the room.

Witnessing the sight, Luna had enough adrenaline running through her body to probably rip the teeth out of a great white shark. She practically suplexed Lori off of Lincoln and delivered a series of harsh punches right to her face when she was on the ground. Luan, meanwhle, made a beeline for Lincoln, noticing his naked body and a complete lack of consciousness from her younger brother. Tears began filling her eyes as she realized the situation, and she cupped her mouth and fell to her knees in agony over not figuring this out sooner. She started to get angry with herself, wishing she took the moaning seriously. Maybe she could've gotten Lori off in time. Maybe this never would've happened to begin with if the her and Luna had just left their door open. Any number of things could've stopped this, but it broke Luan that none of those things ever came to fruition. This was all too real, and she felt sick to her stomach.

She turned her head to see the fight between Lori and Luna getting more even, the punches to her face sobering Lori up enough to try and fight back. Luan couldn’t help but run over and, with a feeling of rage inside of her that was very uncommon, kneed Lori right in the abdomen before delivering one more punch to her face. This seemed to be enough to keep Lori down for the count.

Rage was still plastered all over the faces of Luna and Luan, but they were in control enough to not throw anymore physical attacks at her, Lucy shivering in fear just beyond the door. Instead, they venomously asked one question.

“What...the heck...is wrong with you?” Luna couldn’t have made an angrier whisper if she tried.

Lori seemed fully aware of everything now and looked to see that her clothes were on the ground, her brother was laying naked and unconscious in his bed, and that while her face and stomach were aching, her legs felt slightly numb. The realization hit her harder than a freight train running at full speed. She practically did the same thing Luan did earlier in cupping her mouth and crying hard. She all but forgot that there were three upset (to put it mildly) sisters in the same small room as she curled up into the fetal position and balled her eyes out, feeling nothing but self-loathing throughout her entire being.

As much as her sisters wanted to hurl every sort of inappropriate insult and physical attack her way, they held back, noticing that Lori had finally come to realize what she was doing, though that did nothing to make them feel any sort of pity for the girl. As such, Luna harshly grabbed Lori's shoulders and, with Lucy following her, took Lori into the bathroom while Luan stayed behind to watch over Lincoln. She wasn’t sure if he was going to wake up at any point before morning, but she’ll be damned if her brother was vulnerable to anyone else tonight.

She looked down at his peaceful form and helped put his clothes back on. Of all the people on earth, Lincoln was not someone who deserved to have this happen to him. Lord knows what he would do if he ever found out.


	2. Innocent?

Luna dragged Lori all the way to the bathroom and threw her to the ground. The latter girl didn’t care too much about being jerked around as she immediately went for the toilet to throw up, making Luna and Lucy cringe at the sound of how powerful it was coming up out of her, and the heavy scent of alcohol staining the vomit made the other two girls leave the room just so they didn’t join in on the puking. 

Eventually, Lori got rid of everything in her stomach and went to take a shower. She really did need to clean herself up thanks to all the sweat, but she also just wanted to sit in the tub and let the water hit her. She didn’t lock the door, and so the other two sisters rejoined her in the bathroom, Lucy making a run for the air freshener to cover up the lingering scent still hanging in the air.

The rocker nineteen-year-old had enough time to think while her older sister was exorcising her guts, and she held herself back just enough on the account that Lori was doing it while drunk. That didn’t excuse what she didn’t in any way. Rape is rape and should be treated as such, but Luna was of a clear enough head to start interrogating her older sister.

She wondered what the best question to ask first was. Lori clearly felt regret at what happened from her crying and getting sick, and being too confrontational may make her withdrawn. Luna also didn’t want to be too lenient in her interrogation because Lori didn’t deserve it. Eventually, she just settled on “So what the hell can you tell me?” 

“I…I…” Lori was still too traumatized to say anything coherent. She was laying curled up in the fetal position, silently letting tears fall. She wasn’t full-on crying. Instead, it was more along the lines of being in a depressed daze. It seemed like a nightmare, having sex with her little brother’s sleeping form. She was supposed to be the one to look out for him and protect him from any woman who might want to do him harm. As it turns out, she was that woman.

“You need to tell us something. Your lucky I’m giving you the chance to explain yourself and not call the cops right now.” She was right. In the state of Michigan, rape of a minor who’s a family member stands as Criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, punishable by at least 25 years in prison. Lori was on the hook with three witnesses who could testify against her. There was also the tendency of convicts attempting to kill fellow inmates who went after children. One of the more universal unwritten rules among criminals is that children should be left out of the actual crime if it can be helped. Only cowards went the route of hurting kids.

Lori had everything to lose if she said the wrong things. She needed to speak candidly and say the truth to the three sisters who saw what happened. It wasn’t just that she was afraid of going to prison and possibly dying, what she was more afraid of was the prospect of never being able to apologize to her brother before she went away. 

She pulled the curtain back on the shower and told her sisters “After I’m done in here, we’ll talk in your room.”

Luna and Lucy nodded, making sure she was held to her word.

\---------------

After Lori cleaned herself up, she met with Luna and Lucy in Luna’s room. Luna tried to get Luan to join them, but she was feeling way too protective of Lincoln right now to leave him for the night. Luna gave her sister a pair of pajamas to change into and watched over Lincoln as Luan brushed her teeth and went to the bathroom in record time. At least Lori was nice enough to wipe down the toilet with a disinfectant wipe after she got out of the shower. Luan didn’t want to be away from Lincoln any longer than she had to. She rushed back to Lincoln’s room and settled next to him for the rest of the night. It helped her knowing that, even with what happened, she was there now to protect him from anything else.

Lori sat down with Luna and Lucy and began discussing all of her feelings leading up to the attack and what she was feeling as she was doing it. She talked about her increased protectiveness of Lincoln over the years thanks to all he’s done for her. She explained the guilt she felt for not doing enough to make things up to Lincoln when she wronged him. She explained how much better of a person he was than her. She explained how she thought this was the best way to make it up to him. Now feeling sober, she had to wonder why she thought that was a genius thing to do to begin with, even when drunk.

The thing about alcohol is that it is entirely possible to remember the events that took place while the person was drunk. It woke up all of Lori’s emotions about her little brother, and she was keenly aware of everything she felt while drunk. She became very upset when she thought about how she actually thought these things about him. It scared her to think that she was the person that he needed to be protected from the most.

Well, not just her. As much as they didn’t want to admit it, both Luna and Lucy could empathize with Lori here. They had all grown protective of Lincoln over the years thanks to his willingness to help and his efforts to always try to fix his mistakes, among many other good attributes. He was kind, he was sweet, always willing to help when he could. He got involved when they wanted him to. He got involved when they didn’t want him to. His sisters’ happiness was always above his own. He had patience. He had understanding. If he screwed up, he would work to fix things. They even grew to love his physical attributes that he felt insecure about at one point or another, such as his white hair or his chipped tooth.

Maybe spending your entire life surrounded by other girls, having just one male present that you could empathize and suffer through things with could warp your senses into feeling something you don’t want to feel. It didn’t help that Lincoln had all of those good attributes to him. They all but grew up with an almost perfect guy. Really, if what was on the inside was what really mattered, you couldn’t ask for anyone better. It actually started to make some of them upset that he was their brother because they each felt he deserved a girl like themselves, someone who would take care of him and knew him better than anyone else.

They all knew, though, that doing what Lori had done was in no way a good thing to do. Everyone could agree that Lincoln would not want his own sisters to force themselves on him like that, and he was not the type of kid to partake in anything that had the potential to damage the relationships he already had with them, much less a societal taboo. They were all aware that incest was a terrible thing that had disastrous consequences in a variety of ways. 

Still, they had their thoughts, and Lincoln was always there ready to help them in any way they wanted. A couple thoughts, once in a blue moon, were X-rated, but most of the time, they just wanted him to sit there and comfort them in some way, whether it be just having him sit there while they ran their fingers through his hair, them laying on his chest, anything that would’ve calmed them down in real life. Sometimes, they were under a tree on top of a hill overlooking a valley. Other times, they were curled up next to a fireplace. It was amazing how much he could put them at ease, even in their own thoughts.

As much as Lucy and Luna wanted to dwell on their own thoughts about Lincoln, they still had the matter of rape at hand. Luna looked at Lori, and even though her sister’s words made her think about how she viewed Lincoln, she was still looking at the woman who raped their brother. She said one thing to Lori.

“Get out.” 

The oldest sister wasted no time in doing so. She stole a glance at Lincoln’s room before solemnly walking back to her room and continued crying.

Lucy looked over at Luna after Lori left and she asked “How are you feeling?”

“I hate her right now. She should be in the back of a cop car right now.” Luna should’ve sounded angry, but her voice sounded more like she was frustrated at the moment, and not just with Lori. She was also upset that her sister’s words rang true with her. “But I feel her. The lil’ dude really is the best one out of all of us.”

“He is.”

Both were left to ponder how good Lincoln was to them. They felt conflicted between being even more upset with Lori because of what she did or if they should hate themselves for thinking Lori had a point. Lincoln really did deserve better than what the sisters usually subjected him to, and it only made them feel worse about how they all let this situation happen. None of them were ever willing to atone for things the way Lincoln did, and they always just took him for granted. Now they had to deal with the fact that one of them actually thought having sex with his sleeping form would make it up to him.

The two sisters called it for the night, believing sleep would help them out. Who were they kidding? With what they saw that night and what they were left thinking about, they’d be lucky to get even an hour’s worth of a power nap in.

\--------------

Lincoln woke up the next morning to a beautiful ray of sun shining into his room. Today was beautiful, and it made Lincoln feel good the moment he woke up, though the dream he had last night may have had something to do with it. He immediately noticed some pressure on his shoulder to see someone’s hand there. He whipped his head over to see Luan sleeping right next to him. He suddenly got very worried that the dream he had last night actually did happen with one of his sisters. He lifted the covers to see that both had their full clothes on. He also felt around his crotch to see if there was any dampness. He didn’t find anything immediately wet, but his underwear did feel a bit more uncomfortable this morning. He even felt around to see if there were any spots that were stickier than others, and he found a couple. Great. He had a wet dream during the same night one of his sisters came in and bunked with him, though he wasn’t sure why the dream he had last night only gave him what was probably a very weak orgasm. The dream he had probably should’ve left a much more visible reminder. He also didn’t know why she had come in, but he just assumed she had a nightmare and came to sleep with him. Even with several of his sisters being adults, he was still the person everyone wanted to sleep with if they were ever scared about something.

He actually felt pretty good this morning. Aside from having to work out a couple stiff spots, he felt like he woke up from one of the best sleeps he ever had. Whatever that stuff Lisa gave him was, he was tempted to ask for more of it just for the side-effect alone. 

He eventually stirred out of bed so he could properly stretch his body out, knowing full well it would wake his sister up. Eh, who cares. He had joints he needed to pop. As expected, Luan woke up from his movement in getting out of bed.

“Morning, Luan.”

“Morning, Linc.” She wiped the sleep out of her eyes and started to show worry on her face, the events from the previous night still fresh on her mind. “You…doing okay?”

“Yeah, I’m feeling great” he said, working out his muscles. “That stuff Lisa had me test made me sleep beautifully.” He worked out one more muscle in his back before he finished. “So, d’you have a nightmare last night or something?”

Her face showed a look of surprise. “Huh?”

“You weren’t here when I went to bed last night. I was just wondering if you got scared about something last night.”

He wasn’t aware of what happened last night. Luan didn’t know whether or not to be relieved about this. Sure, that means he wasn’t scarred, but now, she has to wonder if anyone should ever tell him about it. For now, he deserved a lie.

“Oh…I-I was, but you don’t have to worry. Just a bad dream I had last night.”

“You sure? If you want to, you can tell me about it.”

“I-it wasn’t anything major. Just a dream about some family troubles is all.”

He let out a small chuckle. “Trust me, I’ve gotten those before, too. Don’t worry about them too much, though. Those worries eventually go away.” He pulled off his pajama shirt to change into a regular shirt. Luan couldn’t help but notice Lincoln’s build in muscle he got since he entered puberty. It was definitely kind to him.

He quickly spoke again. “Oh…and uh…sorry if you noticed anything…weird with the sheets last night. I…had one of those dreams.”

Luan had no idea how to respond to that. Did he actually have no idea what happened last night, and yet, he had a wet dream anyway? She looked at him right after Lori was pulled off of him. She didn’t notice any signs that he was awake at all, yet his mind made up a dream about it?! She could only assume that the woman in the dream wasn’t Lori if he wasn’t profusely blushing when he first saw one of his sisters that morning.

Lincoln wasn’t about to tell her what happened in the dream (because who in their right mind wants to talk about their wet dreams with family), though he had to admit, it was a really beautiful dream. First came the woman with a face he had never seen before, yet it was the most beautiful face he had ever seen. She got on top of him and rode him at an almost perfect pace. All around him, he was surrounded by the color red, with two red waterfalls on both of his sides, and two masterfully painted walls when he looked down and up. The sky (or ceiling. He couldn’t tell which one it was) was a beautiful shade of sunset orange with clouds rolling by, and it was dropping rose pedals all around the table he was laying on. Apparently, even God felt sorry for Lincoln, because he gave him the most beautiful dream in the face of the pure horror of what was actually going on in real life.

He asked Luan to give him some privacy so he could change his underwear and pants, wanting to change into clean clothes for the day and not have to constantly feel being slightly wet around his crotch. When she left, Luna was just leaving the bathroom, and she beckoned Luan after checking to make sure none of the sisters who didn’t know anything were around. 

“How’s Lincoln?” was the first thing Luna asked after she closed the door to their room.

“He’s fine. He doesn’t know.” This sent a wave of relief through Luna. She didn’t want to even think about what being awake during that would feel like.

“Thank God.”

“Yeah, but…I don’t think he’s fully shielded from last night.”

“What do you mean?”

“He had a wet dream.”

Luna’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped. “A-A wet dream.”

“Yes.”

Now it was Luna’s turn to wonder how that was even supposed to work. It also made Luna worry about something else. Even if he wasn’t awake when he was raped, did he enjoy it?

“Luan? Did…you ask who it was.”

“No. I wanted to, but he probably wouldn’t have appreciated me asking. Seeing how happy he was this morning, I’d have to guess it wasn’t Lori.” Another wave of relief from Luna. “Speaking of her, d-did she tell you anything last night?”

“She did. I’ll tell you.” The two sat on Luan’s part of the bunk and Luna proceeded to tell her sister about everything Lori had told Luna and Lucy. Meanwhile, Lucy got a glance of Lincoln coming down the stairs. Her face had worry written all over it, even if you could only tell by her mouth being open. He seemed in a good mood, though, too good for someone who was raped. He must not have known.

“Hey Luce” he called out from the stairs. She all of a sudden felt very reserved.

“Uh…Hi Lincoln.” She curled up on the couch, pulling her knees to her face.

“Uh, you doing okay?”

“Y-yeah. Just getting over something I read last night.”

“Hm. Must’ve been pretty emotional if it got to you.”

Meanwhile, Lori was still in her bed, wrapped in a blanket. There was almost no sleep for her last night. Just enough so that she wouldn’t feel tired but may have some problems thinking fully coherently. Leni wasn’t at home that morning, since she wanted to meet up with her boyfriend, Jared. She wasn’t awake when the whole ordeal took place, since she, too, took the ointment (having someone else do it with him made Lincoln feel better), and she woke up at around the time Lori nodded off.

Lori heard a knock on the door and could guess who it was before the two ladies decided to let themselves in, anyway, both of whom had very unsatisfied looks on their faces. She had grown numb to the insults by morning, though, and decided to let whatever happen happen. It’s what she felt she deserved. Instead of another beating (which she was reminded of with her somewhat swollen cheeks that morning), she was told by Luna “Lincoln doesn’t know.”

Lori had no clue how to respond. Whatever she was feeling, it didn’t stop more guilt from flooding her after a couple seconds passed. “We are not about to tell, but you had better be prepared to make this up to him, somehow.”

Lori looked up at them with a shocked look and just nodded. Luna wanted so badly to deck her sister in the face again, but simply turned around violently and stormed out of the room. Luan just turned around in anger before calmly walking out of the room.

How do you process this? Her own brother didn’t know his sister raped him. She should’ve felt good at this revelation. It meant he wouldn’t be terrified of her, and yet, it still felt so wrong. Him not knowing doesn’t change the act itself. If he had a surgery and wasn’t awake for it, the surgery still happened. The sad thing about that metaphor was that it worked quite apposite, considering both topics involve someone getting scarred in some way.

For now, that didn’t matter, she wanted to see her brother as his usual self. She immediately jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to see Lincoln at the dining table eating some cereal and watching some of his sisters goof off in the living room. “Hey Lori.” 

Just seeing him not have a care in the world and him saying her name so calmingly made her eyes tear up as she ran around the table to envelop him in a hug.

“Uh, good morning to you, too?”

She unwrapped him, and with tears still falling, let a smile show, happy he was still his normal, happy self. She wrapped him in another hug. “Sorry, I’m just really happy to see you this morning.”

“Did you have a nightmare, too, or something?”

“You could say that.”

Lori let go of him as he finished his bowl and carried it to the kitchen, stating “I swear, did everyone have a nightmare last night? Does this have something to do with one of Lisa’s experiments, cause if so, I’m very happy I wasn’t a part of that one.” That last part made Lori cringe. Lincoln, most certainly, would NOT have enjoyed what she did to him last night. It also reinforced her resolve to make it up to her brother.

\-----------------

For the next few weeks, things went by about as smoothly as one could expect. Lori was back at college while everyone else was back at school. Lincoln didn’t notice too much out of the ordinary, aside from Lucy being more timid and clingy towards him, while Luna and Luan played 20 questions with him whenever he wanted to go out by himself, with all of the questions being safety-related. Jeez, those nightmares must’ve really scared them if they were being this protective. Whatever, they were just nightmares. Their effect would wear off eventually.

Lori didn’t make it up to Lincoln that day on the account of her finally realizing the effects of a hangover after her seemingly 12-hour-long adrenaline rush. Their parents revealed that she had drank a few beers with them last night and that she was dealing with her first hangover. Lincoln played nurse with her all day in bringing her water every now and then, the first trip being with a normal dose of aspirin. Again, too nice to live with such ungrateful sisters, she thought. The next week was a trip to the mall to get him a couple new sets of clothes, under the guise of “I just want to do something nice for you. Y’know, for a change.” His fashion sense had changed in the past few years, going from orange polos and jeans to light-colored t-shirts, black jeans, and jackets, his favorite one being one with a white top half and a black bottom, a few thin black stripes running near where the white turned into black. It was Christmas gift he got from Leni last year, along with a pair of running shoes that had a similar look to them, with black toes that transitioned into white heels. 

Obviously, it would take a lot more than simply buying him clothes to make up for what she did, but it was a start. It seemed like things were on the up and up…until about a week and a half after their shopping trip and Lori felt cramping and thought she was having a period that was very unusual for her normal cycle. This sent a panic through her, as she researched this enough to know what this meant, but she still didn’t want to believe it. That Friday, she drove straight home, stopping at the pharmacy to pick up a few tests, five of them to be exact. She called Luna earlier to make sure she was there when she returned home. The two weren’t exactly on the best of speaking terms, though they had made efforts to try and mend the bridge. Even so, Lori felt Luna deserved to know, seeing as she was the one who was Lori’s voice of reason in all of this. She really hoped this wasn’t what she expected it to be. 

The moment she reached home that night, she took the bag containing the tests and booked it upstairs to the bathroom, not even saying hello to anyone in the living room, though Luna was quick to follow her sister the moment she walked through the door, fully anticipating her arrival.

She used every test, and all of them came back with the reading she hoped she wouldn’t get.

Positive.

Both of the siblings wanted to vomit, since they knew exactly who the father was. Lori actually did, while Luna stayed strong and held her stomach in check. Just when everyone thought of this mess as something that would be put past them, this gigantic thorn was thrown in. God always loves finding ways to remind people of just how bad they screwed up. 

Luna could only feel an agonizing rush of emotions to her brain, as she had hoped this whole thing would have only a small mess to clean up, but this, THIS? This would never be something to go away easy, and she shouldn’t have dreamed so big to think that it would. These are never easy messes to clean up. After Lori had enough composure to respond to any question thrown her way, Luna asked “So what now?”

“I have no idea. I’m pregnant…pregnant…” After jail, this was the next worst thing, having to be constantly reminded of what she did in the form of a child to bear. Neither of them were celebrating, but on the other side of the door, there were seven girls whose range of emotions could not have been more black and white. On the one hand were Leni, Lynn, and the twins, who were all jumping up and down at the prospect of getting to be aunts. Lucy and Luan, on the other hand, knew the child’s origins and reacted much in the same way Luna did in the bathroom, going between making agonized facial expressions and covering their mouths with their hands trying to process the information. Lisa just stood there, an angered look on her face. All of them continued listening in, with the four excited ones starting to get put off by the tension that Luna and Lori were feeling, while the other three just stood there, knowing the exact feeling the two girls in the bathroom were going through.

“Lori, there is no way you can keep it.”

Lori just looked at Luna with the face of a shell-shocked soldier after witnessing the death of his fellow men. “Do you really think that will fix things?”

“What are you supposed to do? Have the kid and hope to God Lincoln never finds out about it?”

The main four outside were puzzled. Lincoln? What did he have to do with the child?

“If I got rid of it…it would only make matters worse if-”

Luna snapped back at her “How?! How the FUCK would keeping this kid possibly be good in any way?!”

“THINK ABOUT LINCOLN, OKAY?!” She took a couple heavy breathes before continuing. “HOW THE FUCK do you think he would feel if he found out not only what happened, but that his own child was aborted without him knowing it was even his?!”

“Which is why I’m telling you he never has to find out if you just get the abortion!”

“And how can you guarantee that?! There are four people in this house who know about what happened!! Do you really trust ALL OF THEM? LINCOLN’S OWN SISTERS! To not let it slip up at some point?!”

Luna was stumped. She had hoped they would, but the fact that it was Lincoln they were talking about made things incredibly complicated. Sure, they could try to keep this a secret and pretend like nothing happened, but it was entirely possible that one of them would become so guilt-ridden that they reveal everything to him in the form of a drunken meltdown or any other form of self-destruction. There really was no good side to pick.

“I’ve been haunted by what happened ever since that night. This just proves that I need to set things right. Lincoln’s going to find out. I’m telling him everything. About the rape. About our child. What happens to it will be up to him to decide.”

She cleaned everything up and walked out to see four incredibly confused and saddened sisters in her way. They heard everything. They knew who the father was and how it was made. The other three just stood to the side, with Lucy and Luan just showing defeated looks on their faces, and Lisa giving Lori the same stare she was giving the door. Luna decided there was no point at hiding anything from them if they heard everything the two girls said. She came out of the bathroom and told everyone “Sister meeting. Now.”

Everyone made their way to (what was, and still is when they stayed over) Lori and Leni’s room. After everyone passed her, Luna caught a glimpse of Lincoln in his room, his noise-cancelling headphones having blocked out all the yelling so he could concentrate on a drawing he was working on on his laptop, his backed turned so he didn’t see any of his sisters at the other end of the hallway. He probably only just recently opened his door, probably to let some air in, since he probably would’ve seen Lori come home or his sisters huddled around the bathroom door, otherwise. 

He noticed how calm he felt, how at peace he seemed as he focused on his art, the dim lighting in his room courtesy of a lamp their mom bought him only adding to the relaxing atmosphere in his room. She remembered seeing one of his drawings for the first time and being awestruck at the detail. She was so proud of her brother for having finally found his calling, and seeing him now, seemingly so content with life, it made her sick to know that he would soon find out the truth of what happened to him.

Lori was right. He needed to be protected, for all of their sakes. 

She entered the room and closed the door so the meeting could start.


	3. Dark Reality

“RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH”

Lola lunged forward and wrapped her hands around Lori’s neck, pinning her to the ground and choking her. Luna and Luan immediately rushed forward and pulled the ten-year-old off of Lori, but that didn’t stop her from putting up one heck of a fight and trying to break free from the older girls’ grasps as she was legit ready to murder her oldest sister. You know Lola is upset when she can see messy hair strands in front of her face and not make any sort of move to fix them. It was one of the very rare times Lola had no concern for her appearance, not when she had her own brother’s rapist in front of her, ready to be given hell.

Lori had spilled about everything the night she attacked Lincoln. The drinks, the feelings…the act. She left nothing to be left to the imagination as she laid everything out to her sisters. Everyone who knew just kept their heads turned, eyes closed, and crying contained as they had to again listen to living through the worst event this family has ever had to deal with, while everyone who didn’t know reacted in their own ways. Leni was busy crying her eyes out, Lynn was laying an assault on Leni’s bed in frustration as she shed just as many tears, Lana shook like she was at the north pole without a proper coat, and Lola jumped Lori.

“HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO HIM?!?!” There was no calming Lola down after this. She was out for blood right now. Lori could only crawl away in terror after she regained her breath, never stopping from rubbing her neck. “YOU’RE HIS OLDER SISTER!!!”

“Lola…” It was Lucy who was speaking. “Calm down.”

“DON’T YOU TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!!!”

“But I will, anyway. I hate Lori just as much as you do, probably, but going into a blind rage isn’t going to do anything useful.”

“DID YOU NOT HEAR WHAT SHE SAID?!”

“I told you, I hate her, too, but she’s not worth it. At least, not for us.”

“HOW IS SHE NOT WORTH IT?!”

“Because Lincoln should be the one who decides her fate.” This was the sentence that seemed to calm Lola down some. Her anger was still there and she was breathing very heavily, but Lucy had a point. Lola knew that if she was the one that had been raped, she would want to be the one to deliver proper justice to her attacker. Lori was not worth her energy, it was Lincoln who should be the one to delivers Lori her just desserts. 

Lynn was able to contain herself enough to speak up. “Lincoln…you said he doesn’t know anything yet?”

“No. L-like I said, he…was asleep when it happened.” Lori was still a bit shaken from her brush with death.

“And you’re going to tell him?”

“Y-yes, he…he deserves to know.”

Now Lynn was in no way the genius that Lisa was, but she had to wonder if that was such a good idea. She had been through high school health classes enough to know that a person’s psyche is very fragile when it comes to abusiveness. It wasn’t exactly the norm for people to respond to abuse with a good mindset. She was also taking a psychology class this year and knew that a person’s established personality can play a big role in how they respond to heavy events. In the case of Lincoln, an artist and super hero geek who cares about his sisters more than anything else in the world, she could only guess that this wouldn’t be a simple ‘it’s okay. I forgive you’ type deal. Really, she wondered if they would be lucky if Lincoln ever talked to anyone ever again.

“Are you really sure you want to do that?”

“Yes.”

“Without question?”

“If I may intrude, I believe it would be good for our male sibling to know about the events that took place during that unfortunate night.” Lisa spoke up. “Sexual assault is not something to be taken lightly, and with Lincoln, it’s entirely within the realm of possibility that his body still contains the remnants and memories of what happened. The dream he admitted to having on the night of the attack proves that, while his conscious memory may not have recollection of it, his subconscious is aware, having been informed by what his own body was feeling.”

“Wait, wait, how do you know about that dream?” Luna asked. The original four from that night all suddenly remembered something. The camera system. Lisa knew, and probably watched it live as it happened.

“You were aware Lincoln was getting attacked and you didn’t do anything about it?!” Luna was not happy with her Brainiac of a sister.

“I’m eight-years-old if you can’t remember. Not exactly a body made for much physical exertion just yet!”

“And you couldn’t just use a weapon you have stashed somewhere?!”

“I’m a scientist, not an arms manufacturer.”

The room filled with a mixture of more crying and arguing before Lucy pulled out a klaxon to shut everyone up. “Look, we all know what happened that night and what everyone was doing, but all of this crying and shouting isn’t going to help us figure out a way to make telling Lincoln the truth as easy for him as possible, or how we can help him through it.”

“Lucy’s right. Lincoln needs our help now more than ever, and we need to make sure he will still be that brother that we all know and love.”

Everyone could agree with this. As much as everyone wanted to go around playing the blame game with each other over who should’ve done what that night, Lincoln was the only true victim in this, and he should be the focus of the girls. They immediately got to work thinking of how to make his situation as bearable as possible.

Lincoln, meanwhile, was just heading back up the stairs after getting a drink of water in the kitchen. He still hadn’t heard much of anything other than the music he was blasting through his headphones, a pair that was a gift from Luna for his birthday several months ago. Now he could understand why she loved this brand so much. The bass and noise-cancellation were spectacular.

Lincoln noticed, coming up the steps, that the doors to all of his sisters’ rooms were open with the exception of Lori and Leni’s room. Must be a sister-only meeting. Still, he was a Loud, after all, and snooping was a collective pastime shared between the siblings. He paused the music he was listening to, pulled his headphones down around his neck and leaned in to hear. 

“So what do you think I should do?” asked Lori.

“Be as honest with him as you can. There’s no point in hiding anything from him.” Luan gave that suggestion.

“Are you completely sure about that? Do you see Lincoln as the kind of guy who can take truths like these well?” Once again, Lynn showed a cautious side to explaining everything to him.

“Well, how else would you do it, Lynn?”

“I’m…not entirely sure, but I would rather Lincoln be told something that’s easier to handle than what-“ Lori cut her off.

“Lynn, you have to understand that Lincoln wouldn’t want to be lied to. There is no easy way to break this news to him and that’s why I need to come clean with everything.”

“You’re going to traumatize him!”

“I’m making things right! If you were the one who did it, wouldn’t you want him to find out sooner or later.”

“I’d want to make it easy for him to stomach everything and not cause him to go into depression.”

“Like you probably heard behind the door, there are four people who saw what happened. You can’t strongarm every one of them to keep quiet for that long.” That was a scenario that Lynn had no answer for, and it didn’t help that those who saw weren’t afraid of Lynn’s threats of physical violence, especially Luna who, as the years went by, could sometimes beat her out in strength. Plus, their allegiance would be with Lincoln, so the threats she could throw at them would fall on deaf ears.

“Look, I don’t really know, alright. I just…want what’s best for my brother.”

“We all do, sis. The lil’ dude deserves a lot better than this but lying to him won’t make things better. I’m with Lori in that he should be told everything.”

“Will he be the same, though?” Lana spoke up.

“We can’t guarantee that, sis.”

“No!” Leni’s level of sternness in her voice surprised everyone in that she was crying only a couple minutes earlier. “If there is a chance Linky gets hurt from this, we need to be careful about how we tell him.”

Lincoln felt like he was watching a movie that was building up to a huge revelation. What? Tell him what? What happened to him that they are so unsure if should even know about it or not? It couldn’t have been good, though, and if he didn’t get his answers by listening into the meeting, he WILL confront Lori about it, seeing as she seems to be the one at the center of it.

“He’s already hurt, Leni. There is literally no way of sugar coating it!” Her breath became shaky as she recalled what she did and what became of it. It was as if screaming it out for the world to hear was helping her come to terms with it all. “I…I…I FUCKING RAPED HIM!”

What? No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That couldn’t be right. Lincoln just misheard everything, right? His own sister? That’s ridiculous! It couldn’t be true.

“I was drunk, I was really stupid, and I thought having sex with him would make it up to him for being a terrible sister, and now I’m pregnant because of it.”

His eyes darted in every direction, his breath was inconsistent and choppy, and he felt like he was on the brink of fainting. She did that? She raped him? And it was her way of trying to get him to forgive her? While drunk? 

The dreams he was having suddenly started to make sense. After the first dream he had during the night in question, he started having it again and again, except there was always something different that happened in it each time he had it. It went from sexy and beautiful to sometimes tense and even scary at times. The woman’s face changed each time he had the dream, and the room he was in changed. He remembered two, in particular, that he had during this past week. The first one had a room that was as if it was from hell itself, with walls of fire on either side of him while the walls in front of and behind him oozed blood. The woman who was riding him, and this was the part that really scared him now, was, in fact, Lori. This being a dream, he didn’t find any sort of issue with it, going along with it and enjoying it, his mind making him forget the fact that she was his sister or the nightmarish imagery surrounding the two. The second dream had a basic color scheme of red and black, but it wasn’t realistic in nature, as it had a very overly-animated appearance like a character from an anime might experience as they descend into madness. There were no walls this time, but he was surrounded on all sides by a raging red inferno that looked as though if you tried to pass through it, you would disintegrate. The floor was black, and it made Lori’s red, almost silhouetted form stand out, even with the flaming (if you could call it that) backdrop. Both times, he woke up at the climax, their sexual screaming being the last thing that he heard before he shot awake to notice his sheets soiled. Like he told Luan, dreams were just that, dreams. He never hung up on them and would always wake up to remember that Lori was his sister. Now that he heard her say everything out loud, dots started connecting in his head.

…That’s why his pants weren’t soiled too much that night. He didn’t feel much of an aftermath from his dream because, instead of ejaculating in his pants…he did it in her.

…That’s why she was pregnant.

And his mind wasn’t just making him dream about his sister because he had the mind of a teenage boy going through puberty. It was because his body got a taste of what it was like to have sex with her.

It’s why Luan woke up with him the next morning. He wasn’t sure if it was because she saw what happened and wanted to protect him or if she took part in it, but he never saw her face in one of his dreams, so it was probably the former. He remembered Lucy’s clinginess, and how timid she was the first morning to be around him. He remembered Luna and Luan being very protective of him in the weeks following.

They knew. They all knew (or at least, they did now).

If Mount Everest had a cliffside that dropped all the way down to sea level, the impact from jumping off may not have compared to Lincoln coming to realize everything.

‘My sister…she raped me. Everyone…found out before me…they didn’t tell me anything. The child…is…mine. The dreams…actually happened. They weren’t nightmares. I…enjoyed them.’

Each thought came with Lincoln’s blood running colder and more sweat running down his body. He had completely tuned out of his sisters’ conversation at this point, as they continued debating if it was best for him to hear the whole thing. 

“is it possible to at least attempt to keep things easy?” Lana asked.

“What can she say? ‘Hey Linc. Sorry about having sex with your own sleeping body and getting pregnant with your child. No hard feelings, right?’”

“Not funny, Luan.”

“Believe it or not, I’m not trying to be.” She got agitated saying this. She wasn’t exactly in the best emotional state over these past few weeks due to witnessing what was going on, only being able to feel spirited enough to perform stand-up again this week, mostly thanks to Lincoln’s cheery and oblivious attitude towards everything that transpired. “How would you feel if you walked in to see something like that?”

“Come on, Luan. Chill out and save it.” Luna came over and worked to calm Luan down, who was none too pleased with her sister for working her up, even if she was the one who escalated it.

“Guys, we’re getting nowhere with this. We need to focus.” Lucy was trying to be play peacemaker with everyone.

“I think Lori should confess everything to a judge, and then rot.” Lola was still none too pleased with Lori.

“I’m trying like crazy to fix things with Lincoln and all you’re focused on is me going to prison?!”

“If you’re so worried about going to jail, then you shouldn’t have ASSAULTED HIM TO BEGIN WITH!!”

Lori was pissed by this point. She felt nothing but guilt about this whole situation, and believed she fully deserved to stand trial for what happened, but her sister won’t even give her the time to try and make things right with Lincoln? That did no sit right with her.

“You can yell at me all you want…but I still feel nothing but guilt about what happened and I’m going to make damn sure I fix things with our brother.”

“Linky doesn’t deserve to HAVE you as a sis-!!” She was cut off by the sound of a bang emulating outside the door. Everyone immediately thought a collective ‘Oh Shit!’ (with Luna actually saying it) and ran right out the door to see Lincoln leaning on the wall a couple feet away from everyone. His face had a look of shell-shocked terror on it and they noticed his phone laying on the ground his hand shaking and still shaped as though he was holding it. 

His face, his dropped phone…

‘He heard’

Every sister thought this but no one was brave enough to do anything, almost as petrified as Lincoln himself was. Leni tried to make the first move. “Linc-“. Her voice snapped him out of his trance as he darted his head upwards to look at his sisters. One step backwards. Two. Then he ran to his room and closed the door.

His sisters followed suit after he closed it, but none of them could figure out if they should go in or not. After all, what would they say to him? They all gave a scared look to each other before resigning themselves to this and not go in. They all went back to their respective rooms after that.

____________________________________

Each sister now had the time to properly think about what they had heard that night, and more importantly, how they felt about Lincoln. Lori was now completely lost. Lincoln found out, but it wasn’t because she told him directly. She couldn’t admit her guilt to him now as she revealed everything. This is not how it should’ve gone down. All she could think of now was his face, his shell-shocked face. She had never seen her brother so scared in her life, and she never wanted to see him like that ever again…but none of this would stop her from talking to Lincoln, anyway. She’ll give him some time, and afterwards, she’ll talk to him and let him decide what she should do.

Leni was curled up in the fetal position on her bed, staring at the wall rather than her roommate. She wore a sad look on her face as she thought of all the happy times she and Lincoln had when they were both younger. She loved Lincoln, and seeing him so scared broke her heart into tiny pieces. She was one of the sisters to have the thoughts of Lincoln being with her in her time of need, how he would lay on her lap and nap while she would gently run her fingers through his hair. She now wondered if that idea could ever be reality after everything he learned that night. Would he ever allow his sisters to even touch him again? All she could hope is that her Linky would come around and be normal again one day.

Luna already knew her feelings on everything. She hated Lori and loved Lincoln. Now, she wondered what she could do to help Lincoln. They spent a lot of time agonizing over how to tell him and, here, he found out by them not being careful about what they were saying out loud. Now all she could think about was Lincoln between then, when he didn’t know, and now. He used to be so happy, but now he was scared, and she wasn’t sure of who. It hurt her to think that he could be afraid of her. She always loved him and was usually one of the sisters to make life more bearable for him. She held him when he was much younger, singing to him, playing to him. Maybe that’s why she always tried to shield him from her lifestyle away from home, where she wasn’t afraid of different kinds of experimentation at afterparties of small gigs she played at. The freaky shit that went down made her want to protect him from anything that could take away his innocence. Now that he knows everything, she wondered how much innocence he had left.

Luan couldn’t get her mind to stop thinking about Lori’s words that still hung in the air. Her words about becoming protective over him as time went on and how far one of them was willing to go in blind emotional turmoil. She could still think back to when he was so little and how much his sisters loved having a brother in the family for a change. A highlight for her came when she was four years old, where she was allowed to hold a sleeping Lincoln while their mother was off doing something. As he slept, he grabbed her shirt in the cutest possible way he could and buried his face deeper into her chest. She would never get over how adorable he was and how she practically died from his cuteness. That may as well have been a whole different reality, now.

Lynn couldn’t help but think ‘I knew it’ as she lazily tossed around a tennis ball in her bed. She knew Lincoln may not have the mental fortitude to handle hearing his attack just get dropped on him like that, though she didn’t expect him to find out by eavesdropping. Guess it was something that everyone did, not just the sisters. She also felt a bit crappy for her own treatment of Lincoln over the years, treating him more as a prop than a proper human being. Lori was right, she grew to care about Lincoln so much over the years thanks to his helpfulness and his will to simply handle any bad situation in the name of his sisters. She actually started to wonder if she would ever meet a better guy than him. Why did they have to be brother and sister? ’Oh Fuck. Lori really was right, after all.’ She could only empathize with Lori now as she started to understand her own affections for him coming to light, and it wasn’t helping her that she was thinking about Lincoln getting more muscle as he progressed through puberty. She started to wonder: did she have it in her to do the same thing Lori did, and how could she make sure that wouldn’t happen?

Lucy could only stare into space as she thought about Lincoln. It was her job to be depressed, not anyone else’s, and the fact that it was Lincoln didn’t help. He was always the guy to try and make things better for everyone. If he didn’t have a plan, he would make one. Lucy needed that in her life, a constant source of optimism that balanced out her moodiness, something her sisters couldn’t be trusted with. Now, there was no plan other than hope that Lincoln gets better somehow. She knew one thing: that task wouldn’t be hers. She wasn’t sure she would ever be able to get over what she saw the night this all started…or forgive herself for not acting sooner or better.

The twins were both feeling upset, though Lana was sad while Lola was a combination of sad and angry. Lincoln was their peacekeeper, almost a glue in their relationship. Yes, they were twins, and therefore drawn to each other anyway, but they never forgot the role Lincoln played in helping them out when they fought. They also wouldn’t forget what he did for them individually. Lana always saw him as a trusted caregiver she could count on when it came to her pets. He never let her down, but he would occasionally get injured doing so, sometimes with a snake bite, other times a spider bite, and the occasional rat bite. This was always fixed with a rabies vaccination by Lisa, as well as brotherly perseverance to make his sister happy. She started to feel like a complete jerk for never taking his injuries seriously or doing more for him than simply saying thank you. She always hated Lola for taking advantage of others, but that’s exactly what she did to Lincoln.

What Lana didn’t know about Lola were the reasons behind her getting Lincoln to do so many things for her. Yes, her methods weren’t the best, but she felt it was the best way to simply get him to join her in doing something, be it being a butler for her tea party, coaching her, painting her nails, and other stuff. The main reason for it all? Lola just wanting to spend time with her brother. She literally just wanted him to be there with her doing something she liked. She knew she would never get into things like comic books, manga, anime, what have you, but that didn’t stop her from wanting Lincoln to always be close by. For as questionable as her execution was, the motives were pure, and she started to understand this around this time last year. Now, she was afraid she may never be able to fully make it up to Lincoln for her treatment of him in the past. Her anger was diminishing into a more somber mood.

Lisa was busy working on her studies in her room. While she wouldn’t reveal it, she was actually suffering a huge amount of guilt and self-loathing right now. After all, it was her experiment that was the reason for Lincoln not being awake to fight back. She saw herself as the main culprit in all of this as she practically gave Lori the keys to his room to go in and do whatever she pleased, a though that was quite apposite with the fact that she didn’t even bother locking his door on her way out after she checked to make sure that he was comfortably in bed before the ointment took effect. She then got to sit back and watch in terror as Lori entered the picture. She paced around the room for a few minutes trying to think of something that would help Lincoln, but she was so caught up in trying to find a solution that Lucy had beat her to it and, by then, Lisa really didn’t have much of a role to play anymore. It was with all of this that she couldn’t concentrate on her studies for more than a few minutes after the attack ended that she took the ointment and lathered it all over, as though she was trying to overdose on the stuff as punishment for her sins. The ointment didn’t work like that, and all it got her was a full day’s worth of sleep. Thinking back to that day, as well as any time she used Lincoln as a lab rat, made her feel sick. She shut down for the night upon realizing nothing meaningful would come from her for the rest of the night. Not with Lincoln on her mind.

____________________________________

Lori felt that a half-hour was good enough to wait before talking to him and so, with all the fear in the world, she made her way to Lincoln’s room. She cracked the door open to see Lincoln curled up in the fetal position facing away from the door. She wasn’t sure if this was a good idea or not, but she entered the room. “Linc?” Hearing her voice made him curl up even more.

“Lincoln, I…I know that I might be the last person you want to talk to right now, but…I just really need you to hear it. I’m sorry, Lincoln. Honest to God, I am…” She started tearing up now. “I-I was supposed to look out for you. I-I’m your big sister, and I f-failed at being that. I hurt you, a-and I’ll never forgive myself for doing that. I got p-pregnant with your child and…O-oh God, what have I done?!” 

She completely broke down now, a crying mess on his floor as he still refused to look her way. She couldn’t see it, but he was crying, too. It was a mix of different emotions hitting him all at once. He heard her admit her crimes right to him, to destroy any shred of possibility of this being one big elaborate joke put on by his sisters. It was true. He really wasn’t innocent anymore and could never go back to those days. He felt like he had a whole part of his life forcibly ripped away from him and he could never see it again. 

But he also heard his sister. Just from her voice, he could tell that the words were sincere. A guilty person who isn’t sorry for their crimes doesn’t work that hard to make their voice break the way Lori’s did. Lori wasn’t even much of a good actress anyway, so she wouldn’t have been able to pull this off in a believable manner. He felt his brotherly side come into focus, and he wanted to forgive her if it made her feel this distraught. His other emotions wouldn’t forgive her so easily, though. She betrayed him in ways his sisters have never done before and certainly not of this magnitude. She’s responsible for violating him, getting pregnant with him without his consent. It was a war of emotions in his head that made him not turn his body and cry. 

After a few minutes, Lori gained some composure to continue speaking. “Lincoln…I want you to know that you have control in this situation. If you want me to turn myself in, I will. If you want me to get an abortion, I will. I know…growing up here, you were never given much control over things, so I want everything to be up to you.” She took a deep breath to gain control over her emotions. “I know I already said it, but I’m really sorry, and despite not telling you this a lot…I love you. More than either of us deserve.” 

Lincoln pondered those words. Did he really have it in him to call the cops on his own sister, despite her crime? Did he actually want to get rid of the child he just found out he had? He asked himself these question as he heard Lori say “I’ll give you some time to think it over.” Just as she was leaving, Lincoln flung his arm out to grab her own. He didn’t even look when he did it, getting a perfect grab on his first try. He didn’t want to have to leave the sanctity of his own room later, so he thought it best if she was there with him as he made it. Plus, he wanted her to hear his decision as soon as possible.

The logical side of Lincoln kicked in as he first thought about the child. Now there were some inherent issues that came with having an inbred child. Any number of bad genes could be passed down to that kid that would make them hard to raise, a laughing stock to other kids, and would keep the kid itself from living the best life it could possibly live. He tried to put himself into the mind of a kid like that, having physical disabilities such as facial asymmetry, a poor immune system, a higher risk for different heart conditions, genetic disorders. He shuddered at bringing a kid into the world that had so much to suffer from the moment it exited the womb.

He also thought about growing up in a family of sisters, particularly how fond he was of his little ones. Lucy never really annoyed him and was always good company to have around, despite her tendency to scare him, and that she was a genuinely kind and loving person. The twins, especially as infants, were nothing but adorable with him, always cuddling into him when they needed to feel safe or because they just felt like it and always preferring him to the rest of their sisters to play with. Individually, he always had a good relationship with Lana, never minding to do things for her, despite the risks he was taking (hello animal bites and potentially ruining his school life) and he had grown to form a really close relationship with Lola over the years, especially this past year where she always seemed to put so much focus on him whenever they played together. Lisa wasn’t exactly much to brag about, but like Lucy, she made good company. Really, he didn’t have much to complain about with them.

And then there was Lily, sweet, beautiful Lily, the baby of the family. The relationship between the two of them could not have been better, really. From the moment she was born, Lily always seemed to have a fondness for the boy, though that was always just chalked up to him being the only male sibling compared to the nine sisters she had. Even babies could tell the differences in things. But it always felt more personal with him. She was almost a combination of the many good traits he could think of when it came to his other sisters, particularly what he liked about Lola. Both were affectionate beyond belief, both always showed a preference for Lincoln over the others when doing different stuff together, and both had a tendency to have Lincoln be the one to comfort them in tough times. The only major differences were the lack of a bratty attitude in Lily (though Lincoln noticed Lola losing that attitude towards him as time went on) and Lily having similar interests to Lincoln. It was a blessing that Lily wasn’t there that night, being out with her parents to do a bit of late-night shopping when their wasn’t much of a crowd to worry about (Lily had to have picked up Rita’s pension for shopping if they’ve been gone for about two hours now. God bless Lynn Sr.), so everything wasn’t known to her. He felt a need to keep it that way, to protect her from ever finding out about what Lori did. It was his big brother instincts kicking in to want to protect her from the horrors of the outside world…just like what a father might want to do with their own child.

The idea of innocence popped back into his head. Lily still was. He remembered what the twins were like when they were still toddlers. Lucy may have never been innocent, but she was definitely more so than she was over these past few weeks. He remembered how much he loved being around his sisters when they were just having fun without any sort of care in the world. 

There was no feeling he could compare to it, and with that, he made up his mind.

“Lori?”

“Y-yeah?”

He turned to her for the first time that night. “Keep it.”

_____________________________________________________

The rest of the night was the two of them ironing a few issues out between them. Lincoln wasn’t past the shock of finding out, as evidenced by him not looking at her for the rest of the night. At least he was forming coherent sentences and speaking clearly. He told her that the decision to turn herself in was a decision he left entirely up to her. Putting her away would feel hollow, as serving justice goes only so far in a person’s ability to make peace with a situation, especially if the victim and perpetrator were close. It wouldn’t allow him time to properly talk with her, allow him time to observe her efforts in trying to make things right, which she seemed to hint at, if giving him the ability to choose her and her baby’s fate was any indication. If he just put her away, he couldn’t hold her to that, and he wouldn’t get everything he wanted to be able to fully make peace with what happened. She already apologized, and now he wanted to see if she meant, and how far she was willing to go to make it up to him, and for something like this, there was A LOT to make up for. 

Her ability to forgive herself and face proper justice would be something that only she could figure out, though he did advise her that turning herself in would mean not being around for their child. He ordered two things. One, she had to check in with Lisa to see if there was anything she could do to both make sure the baby would be born healthy and mask the DNA that would point back to the kid’s inbred origins. Two, love that child more than anything in the world. Lori got the kid through devilish means, so the least she could do was be the best mother ever as a way to try to make it up to Lincoln. He wanted to be in the child’s life, but when he couldn’t, he wanted to know that she was being treated and raised right. The talk was good, and both felt more at ease after it, though Lori tried initiating contact between them a few times, such as touching his shoulder or hugging him, and every time she did, he curled back into a ball. Looks like he wasn’t completely over everything.

This was also evident in the months leading up to their child’s birth. Lincoln may not have been in the depressed state some of his sisters may have feared he was, but he did show sporadic behavioral tendencies. Sometimes, he would just sit quietly and not say anything unless he absolutely needed to, preferring gestures and head movements. Other times, it was as if he was trying his best to impersonate the crazy tendencies of Mel Gibson’s character from Lethal Weapon. One time, in particular, stood out to everyone. He was downstairs making himself a peanut butter and sauerkraut sandwich, Lucy and Leni sharing the kitchen with him, when Luan came in and asked Lincoln how he was doing. With speed, his voice started out low but picked up as he said everything, not even stopping to take a breath anywhere in between. 

“Me? Me? Oh yeah, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be fine? I’m mean, I know that sometimes, bad things happen, but today? Not today. Nothing to complain about on my end. I mean, I only live in a house where all of my sisters find out about everything before I do and love to make things more difficult for me in any way they can, but heh, heh, heh, no issues to complain about on my end. I’m mean, what else is there to say on my end other than that I’m feeling FUCKING PEACHY?!?!” 

He slammed the knife he was using to spread the peanut butter into the sink, making everyone jump at his sudden outburst and the loud clanging sounds that followed. He picked up his plate and stated “I’m going to my room. Don’t bother me unless you have to” before speeding away up the stairs. The sisters were left dumbfounded and scared that their brother made an outburst like that. It was that quick monologue that they started to understand how deep this all ran with him. As a collective, they all seemed to play a silent role in all of this in the years leading up to it.

A few more outbursts like these came up, some in front of his parents, which his sisters covered for by saying that growing up in a house full of ten sisters that weren’t exactly the kindest to him growing up may have finally started taking a toll on Lincoln’s mental state. The parents contemplated having Lincoln see a therapist, but Lisa advised against it, saying she would take that role on herself, though she did give a list of medications that could treat schizophrenic behavior. They brought her along to consult a doctor about it and the parents settled on getting Lincoln a prescription of Zyprexa. The sisters were none too happy when they found out Lincoln would be having to take medication for his behavioral pattern. They tried helping him any way they could to try and keep his mind off of things, but helping on the outside is different than helping on the inside, and Lincoln still didn’t seem to be coming to terms with everything he was told by Lori.

It wasn’t just him trying to get over Lori’s admission he was trying to come to terms with, either. During one of his sessions with Lisa, he admitted to her that he was having fairly frequent sexual dreams, and they ALL revolved around his sisters. These weren’t tame dreams, either. His mind was practically working overtime to think up some of the most nightmarishly sexy imagery it could. He heard amplified moans, he was always surrounded by red and velvet whatever, and he could swear that his sisters almost always came to him in the form of succubi. The images still hung fresh in his mind when paired with the overtly sexual images his mind came up with, their satisfied forms rocking with him, their hips swaying, their moans echoing. It was like extremely artistic porn on steroids. He’d be lying if he said they weren’t phenomenal dreams (as evidenced by him waking up to soiled pants and bedsheets), but the fact that it was his sisters was what was getting to him. His mind was doing everything it could to make him lust after his own sisters. He had to deal with two things that were driving his mental state right into the ground.

When he wasn’t worried about trying to keep himself together, he was worried about his child. Lori did what he asked and saw Lisa for checkup and DNA masking. The child was, thankfully, forming without any physical deformities, so she (the sex being found out when Lisa gave her an ultrasound) would grow up happy and healthy, pending that she would also have a healthy mind. She was also able to scramble the child’s DNA, so Lincoln’s genetic trace could not be found from things like a blood test. Lori was also lucky enough to have the world’s best boyfriend in Bobby, where she made up a lie that he had accidently gotten her pregnant one night. Lisa was able to, at least slightly, make the child his when she had him come over to the house one day to take a blood test, under the guise of checking his blood for any negative genetic issues he might be harboring, only to inject Lori with a really small amount of it so that the blood could be absorbed by the growing fetus (thank God his blood type was O negative). Everyone doubted that this would do anything meaningful, but at least the kid now had Santiago blood in her. 

Every time Lincoln would see his daughter on the ultrasound screen, he didn’t see a reminder of his attack, or any lost innocence that came along with it. He saw a child, his child, his daughter, whom he couldn’t always be around for. She was going to grow up to be beautiful, he just knew it, but he wouldn’t always be around to watch her grow up. He wasn’t sure what was more painful to think about, the baggage that came with his rape or the fact that he wouldn’t be able to watch his own child grow up until she finally decided to move out on her own. It was his resolve to make every moment he spent with her count, and to be the one whom she would want to turn to in times of turmoil. He wanted to be the best person in her life to make up for not always being there for her, Lori and Bobby be damned. Lincoln knew who the real father was, and fathers always form tight bonds with their daughters.

__________________________________

Nine months came and went, and on January 28, Lori and Lincoln (and Bobby) welcomed a baby girl into the world. She was beautiful, a healthy child whose cries made Lincoln’s soul want to jump out of his own body. Lori looked at her like a loving mother would, a loving gaze that said “I promise to love you, no matter what.” Bobby could only cry as he witnessed the child he would father for the first time.

Much to Bobby’s disappointment, Lori kept good on her word, and Lincoln was allowed to pick the name. He had thought long and hard about this, as he wanted her name to have meaning for him. His mind kept going back to the events of that fateful month where his life changed forever. He remembered talking with his sisters about everything that happened, what Lori did, what Lucy did, what Luna did, what Luan did. The constant he found in their stories, besides the obvious one, was the special sort of kindness and protectiveness that one of them showed. He remembered being told about how her first concern going into his room wasn’t on Lori, but on Lincoln, making sure he was okay. He remembered being told how she refused to leave his room for anymore than a few minutes, wanting to protect him and comfort him, even when he wasn’t aware of what happened. He remembered waking up in her arms the next morning. 

He remembered her attempts to help him through all of this in ways Lucy and Luna didn’t. They seemed paranoid, more afraid of what might happen to Lincoln rather than helping Lincoln in the moment. She did, through a bunch of ways. She would work extra hard to pinpoint the type of humor he loved and tell him the jokes she thought he would love, which he usually did. She showed patience with his mood swings and listened when she felt he needed to talk to someone. She didn’t try to calm him down and make him be quiet if he needed to vent about his frustrations with his sisters or anything else that was on his mind. She seemed to be acting more like his therapist than Lisa did.

Out of everyone, while he appreciated each of his sisters’ efforts to help him, one stood out as the most loving and caring out of all of them.

Luan. 

A simple letter change and his child’s name would be perfect, his own way of saying thank you for everything Luan did for him. He even wanted her in the room when he made the choice.

“What’ll it be, Linc?” Lori asked. He told everyone and he could hear Luan give a small, thankful cry through her hand-covered mouth when he said it.

“Loan.”


	4. Gorgeous

It pained Lincoln to not be able to hold his own daughter. He had to watch as Bobby sat there, holding the child the man played no part in conceiving. Lincoln wanted so bad to walk up to him and yank Loan from his arms, but for everyone's sake, he held himself back.

"You okay, Linc?" asked Luan.

"I'm never gonna get to hear her call me dad." He promptly walked out of the room, aggressively too. It was another harsh reality lesson that Lincoln would have to deal with. He could never let his own kids see him as their father, only their uncle.

It wasn't long before Bobby brought out the newborn, wrapped in a blanket, so that both sets of parents could see their new grandchild. After that, the rest of the families got to see. The odd one out was Lucy, who seemed more concerned with Lincoln than happy about Loan being a healthy child. Even Ronnie Ann, a girl who wasn't what one would call a sappy individual, couldn't help but give the child a big hug when she got to hold her, wearing a very uncharacteristically loving smile on her face. Lucy, however, could see his disdain for the situation all over his face. He wanted to be the father, the person who would be his daughter's protector, the one to chase off boys as she grew older. Being relegated to uncle could not have been a bigger gut-punch to Lincoln. Having suffered so much in the past year, he could now add 'inability to care for his own child' to that list as well.

"Lincoln…" Lucy pulled Lincoln out of his self-pity session. "I know it hurts that you won't see Loan all the time, but you'll still get to see her. Lori hasn't shut you out, at least."

"Do you really think saying that is going to make me feel better about all this?"

"No, but…I just thought it was worth reminding you that not all hope is lost."

"This coming from the brooding teenager?" It was amazing how different his voice sounded now thanks to puberty.

"Yeah, I see the irony." Lucy didn't know what she was trying to do with this conversation. She couldn't blame Lincoln for being so upset. She would be, too. It's just that she didn't want Lincoln to become a lost cause. The old him was never coming back, but at least he had the potential of being a helpful big brother still.

Keeping his voice hushed, he said "Look Lucy, I'm thankful that you're trying to make me feel better about this, but this is my kid we're talking about, something that we can't reveal to anyone." He looked up and glanced at Bobby's smiling face that had happy tear marks on his cheeks. "Not even Bobby…no matter how painful it is."

Lincoln turned around and Lucy could only watch as her brother left the hospital, his absence going completely unnoticed as everyone was so focused on Loan. Lucy turned to see the crowd, particularly the faces worn by her parents and Lily. They didn't know the baby's true origins and would celebrate her as though she was the product of a perfectly ethical sexual encounter. This was anything but, but Lucy had to keep her mouth shut. They didn't need to know, and Lincoln wouldn't want them to know. As kids, everyone made a habit of keeping secrets from their parents that may get them in trouble. Now, they had to keep the most agonizing secret of this family's history under wraps. Lucy could only resign herself to the situation as she went back to join her family, with thoughts of Lincoln weighing heavily on her mind.

Lincoln was counting his blessings over the past few months. Lori and Bobby requested that their families help look after Loan while the two of them finished up college. It was insisted by Lori that her family do more of the babysitting because, having grown up in a house where there always seemed to be an infant, they would be better prepared to look after the baby. Lynn Sr and Rita were always the ones prepared to handle much of the responsibilities, seeing as their other kids had school as well. Luna was the exception, as she was part of a band that, while not being signed to a record label, had a massive online following, the money she got from streaming being more than enough to cover living expenses, so she could watch Loan during the day while the two were at work. Oh, how Lincoln had come to hate high school now. His own daughter was home and he couldn't take care of her. When the final bell rang and he made it home, though, nothing else mattered to him other than Loan. Rita gave him permission to watch her on the condition that his schoolwork wouldn't suffer because of it. The first thing he did when he got home was his homework. After that, it was all Loan.

He held her, he played with her, he rocked her to sleep, he fed her, he changed her diapers, made her laugh. He was making good on his promise to be as good a dad as he could given the situation. The best part? Loan was attached to him almost immediately. Either the trust she was beginning to feel in him or the natural connection a baby has to their parents, she seemed to be drawn to Lincoln. When she was pulled away by one of his sisters or parents, she would get agitated, wanting to return to Lincoln's comforting embrace. When she was given back, she calmed down, hugged him, and napped peacefully. Seeing the bond that was forming between the two, he was given the official duty of caring for her whenever she visited when he wasn't focused on school. Rita and Lynn noticed how happy the two were with each other, so it only made sense that she would be cared for by the person she gave the easiest time, too.

One thing that being Loan's caregiver did for Lincoln was that it really helped him with the challenges he was facing mentally. He could finally take his mind off of things and focus on someone who legitimately needed his attention. He even managed to sleep better with Loan near. Rather than his lust-driven dreams, sometimes he went dreamless while other times he was given one about playing video games with her, watching movies, really anything bonding-related that the two could share together. These being dreams, something would always be off, such as Loan speaking complete sentences in her baby form or being married to somebody, whether it be someone he knew from school or even one of his sisters, and being that it was Loan, it was mainly Lori whom he was married to. He didn't mind, though. At least they were different to the dreams he had with her normally, and by God, did he need a break from those.

When Loan wasn't around, he continued to experience those lustful dreams and, while he didn't experience them every night, they came at him full force. They were affecting him so much that, by the time Loan was three months old, he couldn't even get normal crushes on girls he thought he should like. It was a common theme at school for Lincoln's friends to be talking about a new hottie in their grade, and Lincoln would always just play along so as not to arouse suspicion on who he was actually attracted to. Thankfully, the guys never pushed him into any situation where they wanted him to ask the girl out, always more focused on the latest video games, tv show, internet personalities, and in a blue moon, politics. There was no way he could ever admit to anyone, not even Clyde, that he was attracted to his own sisters. They'd probably side with him if he told them what happened, but he couldn't trust that they wouldn't call the police on his family. The only thing Lincoln trusted his friends with was his medication and when he should take it.

Any chance of Lincoln having normal love life was nearly dead. He already had a couple girlfriends, but they never lasted more than a couple months. No one could ever guess what he and Ronnie Ann were, but her moving to Great Lakes City ended the chance of them being in a real relationship. They were just too young and inexperienced to make a long-distance relationship between the two of them work. Seems Ronnie Ann agreed with this statement, as she made a few Skype calls to Lincoln introducing him to a boyfriend every now and then (she was currently on her second one since moving there). Even in the long run, there wasn't much of a chance for the two as both were growing up to desire different career aspirations and where they wanted to achieve such dreams. Ronnie Ann wanted to move to Chicago and become a professional boxer while Lincoln wanted to stay behind and use his drawing skills for something. He wasn't sure just yet, but he was leaning heavily towards going to college for architecture, moving closer to Detroit so he could aid in the city's revitalization efforts. Everything about their current situations and futures were just way too different for them to give an actual shot at being boyfriend and girlfriend. Despite that, the two of them still remained good friends, definitely his best friend outside of his circle back home.

He had two real girlfriends after that, but neither went anywhere, with the first girl not committing enough in the relationship for Lincoln's liking, while the second girl broke it off due to Lincoln's aggressive work ethic towards his art. It wasn't like he devoted his whole day towards his drawings, but apparently, that was still too much time for her liking. Keep in mind that these both happened before Lori's assault on him.

After that happened, his attitude towards relationships changed as he was now heavily attracted towards his older sisters. When he wasn't barely registering their mere existence, he seemed to check them out a lot. Lincoln gave an unsteady breath whenever he pictured his one of them in something kinky, the kind of breath a man makes when he is clearly aroused about something, but the sisters never seemed to pick up on the differences in his breathing. For them, it just got lost among their worry for him, their focus on making sure he kept up with his medication to help his schizophrenic behavior (and if they didn't remember to do so, his sudden mood swings and outbursts would remind them), and their own affections for Loan when Lincoln wasn't hogging her.

The scary thing about Lincoln's affections for his sisters was that he was practically shameless about it. When checking them out, he wouldn't even look away when he was caught, getting so engrossed by them that it took them saying his name or clearing their throat to get him to snap back into reality. Sometimes, he would sneak glances of them and fantasize about extremely sexualized versions of whatever situation they were in. Sometimes, it was something as simple as watching tv, but leave it to Lincoln to turn it into a bonafide porno.

Speaking of porn, he would sometimes watch some, imagining it was one of his sisters and him in the act. He wouldn't even need porn a few times, as he had managed to get himself off on his fantasies alone. It was a fun time when the twins overheard his moaning during one of his sessions and he lied that he was talking with Clyde about what the ghosts might sound like in an upcoming episode of ARGGH!. He managed to control himself after that day, but it was happening at a very frequent rate, sometimes every other day if Loan wasn't around.

Weirdly, the two sisters that his fantasies usually revolved around were Luna and Lynn. He saw the two of them as the experimental type who would be down to try different kinds of sexual encounters, be it different settings, different positions, etc.. Things like doggy style on the living room couch, dirty bathroom stalls while drunk or high, and car sex were some of the many things he only wished he could do to them, and since Lori, Leni, and Luan probably weren't into all of that, he only envisioned them in romantic, vanilla, or sensual settings. With those two, however, seeing as Luna had made a few bad decisions at a couple afterparties (he overheard a story Luna was talking about on the phone dealing with a cocaine-fueled orgy between her, Sam, and a couple groupies after one of their shows in Detroit), and Lynn, who was just starting to have sex with other guys, was relentless in bed, Lincoln felt that those two would be the most accepting of wild ideas.

All of these thoughts were slowly twisting his mind into believing that lusting after his own sisters was okay. He was masturbating at the prospect of nailing his them in warped fantasies and dreams that were very divorced from reality. In his dreams, they were succubi coming for him, and in his fantasies, he was an incubus coming for them. Real life, however, was him trying desperately to convince himself that any of these thoughts and dreams were not what a brother should be thinking about his sisters. In fact, more than once, one of his sisters would walk into his room and they would see him sitting on his bed, mumbling to himself while constantly slapping himself across the face. They noticed drool running down his chin, never taking the time to swallow his own spit as he was so caught up in wanting to punish himself for thinking these things. Usually, his recommended dose of Zyprexa would help to end those episodes, as the sisters would always come in finding him like that when they wanted to remind him of his medicine schedule, but despite this and him admitting everything to Lisa, he was still thinking it and it was still affecting him.

The sisters were becoming more and more worried about Lincoln with every passing day. They wanted to pry from Lisa the information Lincoln had given her during the sessions he had with her but, believing very strongly in patient confidentiality agreements (something she had Lincoln sign before their first session), she refused to budge. Even on medication, Lincoln was nowhere near the brother they once knew. He was more depressed, a loner, an outsider it seemed. He would still help them and play with them, but the spark they once saw in him, indicating that he was enjoying himself, was more like smoking remnants, though he did, occasionally, show genuine happiness a few times. As much as they wanted to put all of this on Lori (which was easy to do), they still felt guilty about fostering the environment that led to everything that happened. Good communication was something that didn't exist in the Loud household. It was as if karma became a sort-of scientific law for the household; bad things must happen before good things happen. It was usually Lincoln on the receiving end of these fiascos, and when it wasn't through the family getting dealt a bad hand, it was because it was Lincoln against his sisters, and since there were ten of them, it may as well have been Lincoln against the world.

This past year was them attempting to fix their past mistakes of leaving him out to dry while everyone else got to eat cake. The four oldest sisters took on the roles of protective and supportive big sisters, constantly doing what they could to make Lincoln's life as easy as possible. Lori was having the baby while Leni focused her energy on helping Lincoln with his wardrobe change. Luna practically took up all of Rita's motherly protectiveness and was always ready to question him about the safety of the different activities he was doing. Luan was more on the loving and nurturing mother side of things whose efforts earned her the award of Loan being named in her honor.

Lynn was strange in that, rather than work to mend their relationship, she never really interacted with him much anymore. She was under the impression that, if she stayed away from Lincoln as much as possible, she would lose her affinity for making him her workout buddy and stop messing with him so much. There's also that bit about her not wanting to rape him in his sleep, as well. Lucy, meanwhile, was much the opposite, always wanting to be with him and help him with something. She was the clingy type of little sister that, while definitely more stable than other girls with this mindset, would be quite befitting of the phrase 'brother complex'.

The twins were becoming that, too. Lana decided to live under the phrase 'if you love me, let me go', as she let all of her wild animals free in the wild if no one could watch them, and I they returned, then that meant that they really did see her as their proper caregiver. She also stopped making Lincoln be the one to care for them. There was no way she could make it up to him for every bite he ever got, especially the bites that required extraction of venom or a rabies vaccination, but if her animals were vicious and bit Lincoln, then as her own apology, she would constantly try to cuddle him to help him feel more calm about everything he was currently dealing with. She even kept herself clean when she did it, too, knowing that Lincoln wasn't a huge fan of having to clean up after her. This sentiment was shared with Lola, who wanted Lincoln to know how much she did care about him. When she wasn't cuddling him or helping him care for Loan, she was baking for him, making him little sweets that were decorated with personal messages on them. It seemed like every other week, Lola would have a cookie platter to bring Lincoln, who always appreciated it. There was just something about Lincoln being happy that made her soul feel so free inside of her.

Lisa simply had her duties of being his therapist and medical advisor, and Lily didn't know anything, so for her, it was business as usual for how she treated Lincoln. The most important rule established by every sister, though, was that there was to be no more bad communication between the siblings.

A rule that nobody apparently told Leni, who continued the trend of terrible decision-making.

She had just broken up with her boyfriend, Jason, and instead of being sad, she was furious. He didn't do anything necessarily bad, but Leni was upset over how oblivious he was about her desires for a more passionate relationship. She wasn't necessarily looking for it to be sexual, but the least he could've done was move past always taking her to your typical family restaurants. They never went high-end, spent more than $40 for their meals, and he never really surprised her with any sort of gift he thought she would like. She was able to endure this for a year, but after a while, even someone like her expects things to progress so things don't get stale. It didn't help that the guy seemed terrified of advances on both his end and hers. Eventually, a girl just gets tired and wants things to change, or else the relationship is as good as dead. He was clueless about all of this all the way to Leni breaking things off with him, only for her to get angrier when he just accepted it and walked away as though he was going to meet up with some friends at the food court of the mall. Either he was just as airheaded as she was, or it was a weight off of his shoulders that he wasn't dating her anymore.

She needed something to release her frustrations and remembered seeing Lincoln check her out a few times. At first, she thought to herself 'Ew, gross!' but then, she remembered that Lori did it to him. If her older sister did it, then Leni could do it too, right? But no, Lori crossed boundaries thanks to what she did, as she never let Lincoln consent to anything. Wait, that means if Lincoln does consent, it would be okay, right? After all, she didn't know any other boy she could trust to treat her properly other than Lincoln, social taboos surrounding the act be damned. She also remembered how willing Lincoln was in helping his sisters with something, and she perked up at this.

"Hey, Linky?" she asked entering her brother's room and closing the door.

"What do you want, Leni?" He was sitting on his bed watching episodes of an anime on his computer.

She walked right up to his bed and simply stated "I want you to sleep with me."

Lincoln's eyebrows shot up as he cast her a glare. Was he fantasizing again? The fact that he felt the weight of his laptop on him clued him in that it wasn't. Still, he was so far down his mental rabbit hole that, instead of screaming 'NO!' at her and pushing her out of his room, he instead asked "Why?"

"Jason wasn't very smart and didn't know what it meant to be romantic, so I broke up with him, and now I need something to make me feel better." She saw how unimpressed he was with this answer, as his face showed nothing but indifference on it (a look that he was quite used to wearing now). She noticed this and tried to convince him to say 'yes', sitting on his bed, pushing his laptop farther up his chest so she could straddle him, and took his cheeks into her hands. "Come on, Linky. I know what Lori did was bad and everything, but I promise to treat you so much better than her." She gave him a soft, teasing kiss on the lips. He was still unimpressed with this, but his body was all kinds of eager at the prospect of nailing her in real life. With the most unenthusiastic response ever at the prospect of having sex with someone, all he said was "Okay" and put his laptop to the side. Lincoln was rewarded with another kiss from Leni and a soft "Thank you" before she went in.

In comparison to his fantasies where she just went straight for the kill, there was a little more teasing and foreplay before the main event. Lincoln really didn't even do anything, as he just laid there while Leni did all of the work, first giving him soft kisses down his body before pulling his pants down to reveal his penis. Rather than go all in on giving him head, she simply teased him with a few licks and kisses before bringing her hips back to his and putting him in her. One thing that did match his fantasies with her was the pace at which the actual act happened. She was slow and methodical, seeing what made him tick and committing it to memory. After she figured him out, she went all in on what he liked. From her, he liked it slow but with constant movement, and so she complied, moving her hips around slowly but consistently, her satisfied breathing and biting her lip indicating that she was enjoying it more than he probably was.

Actually, that wasn't hard to do. See, while Lincoln was feeling all kinds of bliss throughout his body, his mind wasn't feeling any different to when he was just sitting there on his computer. He didn't feel any sort of connection, any emotion that would signify that he made the right decision in consenting with her. His mind just felt numb to what was happening. He allowed himself to fantasize so much because he never expected that he would actually get with one of his sisters. What he didn't count on was them coming to him asking for sex. Now that he was experiencing it, you'd think he'd be on cloud nine right now. Nope. He just felt indifferent, only going along with it because his body and his sister wanted him, too. After what Lori told him and his silent mental breakdowns that followed, he wasn't sure what was right or wrong anymore. All he knew was that someone he was fantasizing about and always checking out came to him for sex, and why would he say 'no' to that?

As the act went on, he figured out her pattern and moved his hips in tandem with hers, both parties speeding up the closer they got to finishing. She finished with ecstasy while he ended with a passive acceptance of ecstasy. Despite Leni going to him for wanting to get with a guy that she thought of as romantic, there was a very noticeable lack of intimacy in the encounter. This was more like an angry fling to get back at someone than a legitimately sensual encounter. The fact that they kept their clothes on was proof of that, with Lincoln only having his pants pulled down and Leni only pulling down her panties. She thanked him again, kissed him, got off of him, and left his room, blowing him a kiss and a wink as she did.

Lincoln just sat facing the wall next to him. He felt no joy right now, no euphoria. He felt no different than before. All he was doing was questioning what was happening to him. First, he found out he was violated, then he fantasized heavily about his sisters. One of them came to him outright asking for sex, and he agreed. This was his life now. A messed-up life of living as a rape victim, fantasizing about his sisters, actually having sex with his sisters, a daughter that he couldn't see on a regular…wait a minute.

'Oh Fuck!'

\---

"Guys, guess what? I'm totes pregnant!" All of her sisters were celebrating.

"Congratulations, Leni!" Lori spoke up. "Did you tell Jason?"

"No. We broke up."

"Oh…so, who's the father?"

"Linky!"

None of her sisters were celebrating.


	5. So Appalled

"What? The fuck? Were you thinking?" was the first thing Lori asked in the emergency sister meeting that was called. The rest of the sisters were ready to chew Leni out as well. Lori was, at least, traumatized by what she did. The fact that Leni was standing here as happy as can be meant that, if she said the wrong things, her sisters would be ready for blood.

"Well, first I was so excited because I was going to be a mom, but then I started to worry about how I could care of it while working and-"

"That's not what I FUCKING MEANT!" That shut Leni up immediately. "How could you do that to him?! How could you go and make the same stupid mistake I did?!"

"Oh, it wasn't a mistake. I asked Linky and he said it was okay."

"W-…What?!"

"I wanted Lincoln to help make me feel better after I broke up with Jason. He said it was okay to do it, so we did."

The sisters went wide-eyed for the third time that night. Lincoln consented to having sex with one of his sisters. His sister. Consent. It went from 'what the heck is wrong with her' to 'what the heck is-'

"Oh no." Everyone thought it (sans Leni), but only Lori said it. Anyone who was standing sank to the ground, and those who were already sitting went even lower, such as falling over and laying down. This was worse than they had imagined. Lincoln wouldn't say 'yes' to this, or at least, not the old him.

This was Lincoln now, and Lincoln now was living with the baggage of at least a year's worth of unfortunate (to put it lightly) events, and it was destroying him. What does mental baggage do? It breaks you. Therapy was doing nothing for him. His medication was doing nothing for him. Nothing was happening to truly address the big issue he had to constantly deal with. His thoughts. Therapy couldn't make him stop thinking about something, and Zyprexa, like most medication that handles schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder, focused on balancing chemicals associated with the brain. In this case, it focused on the chemicals dopamine and serotonin, both of which can increase a person's mood. But a person's state of mind is separate from their ability to think. Moods are different from thoughts, and if certain thoughts are stronger than others, they will be thought about no matter what the emotional state of the person is. The sisters acted like Lincoln did the first night he found out about everything as they started connecting dots in their heads.

Constantly checking them out should've been the sign for them that clued them in into what Lincoln was always thinking about, and if not that, then constantly finding his sheets in the dryer on many mornings should've. The same goes for the sheer lack of emotion they saw in Lincoln a lot of times, a far cry from who he was several years ago. The final straw was the meltdowns they sometimes walked in on to see him experiencing, which they always just chalked up as him needing to take his medication. They didn't recognize this sooner, and as a result, a second sister was now pregnant. This was Lincoln now, a sixteen-year-old, mentally unstable teenager who was attracted to his kin that nobody thought to help him out with. Well, nobody except Lisa, who probably knew all of this, but she wasn't at the meeting, which said a lot about how she felt about everything. A couple sisters remember seeing her shocked form walking back to her room in what looked like a daze. If she knew, that means she tried to stop it. Leni's admittance to who the father was told them all they needed to know about the results. Lisa failed, and if she failed, they had to wonder how much hope was left.

Leni noticed no one was moving much and announced "Well, if no one is going to say anything else, I need to run to the mall. I need to figure what the baby might like for clothes. By-yee." Everyone else could only sit there, guilt-ridden and self-loathing beyond what most people may feel. No one could possibly know what failure meant to them right now. They failed AGAIN to address the issues that led to a sister getting impregnated by their own brother. First, it was a failure to notice their own roles and emotions towards Lincoln and making his life not the most ideal. Now, it was a failure to see the signs of his unhealthy emotional state. The fact that it was consensual seemed to make matters worse because he was probably so emotionally burned out from everything that he couldn't even bother to work up any sort of will to tell a sister 'no'.

"What have I done?...What have I done?..." Lori's voice was the first to be heard since Leni left. In her mind, she started all of this. She catalyzed everything. If she doesn't sleep with Lincoln, Leni never repeats the act (Leni may not have said that specifically, but everyone grew up with her enough to know her tendency to just follow along with what the others do). Lincoln doesn't suffer constant dreams about them, and he doesn't have to worry about not being involved in his own kids' lives.

One event. ONE. That was all it took for everyone to question everything about their family and walk the fine line between keeping things secret or going to prison.

Lola was the first to gain her bearings and got up to leave. Everyone else was stewing in all sorts of negative emotions too much for them to care about where she was going. She went to Lincoln's room, wanting to make sure he was doing okay.

"Linky?"

The last time he heard someone say that, it ended with him becoming the father to another child. At first, he cringed, fearing it was Leni again or one of his other older sisters. To his relief, it was Lola, someone who wasn't always occupying his mind with inappropriate thoughts.

"Hey Lols" he said with only a really small hint of enthusiasm from his bed, pausing whatever video he was watching on his laptop. "Did you need something?"

"Are you doing okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Please don't lie to me, Lincoln." She ran to the side of his bed and placed her hands on his arm. "Tell me the truth. Are you really doing okay?"

A brief silence was followed by him looking in the direction of his knees and saying "I don't know."

She wanted to cry. The expression on his face, indifference mixed with frustration mixed with sadness, it said everything. He was thinking about everything and couldn't come up with any real answer as to why any of this was happening. It all felt so hopeless and appalling.

She stayed strong, though. For him. The last thing he needed right now was seeing one of his sisters cry. He needed something she doubted Lisa ever gave him during one of his sessions with her, genuine comfort. Without warning, she hopped onto his bed and curled up into his side. Lincoln was used to her cuddling him, so he wasn't fazed at all by it. Actually, he felt like he needed someone to hold, so he put his computer off to the side and held her after she repositioned herself to lay on his chest, her preferred method of cuddling him, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Our older sisters suck."

"Can't really argue with that."

"I'm sorry you have to keep suffering, Linky." She always sounded so cute to him when her voice was muffled by her arm and his chest.

"Well, this one can be blamed on me since I said 'yes' to it."

She looked up at him. "But Leni came to you. She could've just done something else, but instead, she came to you."

"And I said 'yes'. I'm not really innocent here, Lola."

"But you are hurting." Lincoln never liked to see worry in any of his sisters' eyes, but he saw it on full display in Lola's. She may not have seen either act, and he wasn't sure she was old enough to understand how complex and overwhelming all of this was for him, but she did know that he wasn't himself. She leaned her head back down onto his chest and said "I don't blame you for anything."

The words hit him with force. Here was his younger sister, who had taken advantage of him in the past to have him come to her tea parties and dress up as her butler, who would blackmail him and tell on him without any remorse, choosing his side in all of this and wanting to comfort him to try and make him feel better. She had spent the last couple years trying to be a better sister, but nowhere was it needed more than now for him. Rather than feeling overwhelmed and ready to cry, he simply felt content.

"Nice to know I have at least one supporter in this. Thanks Lola." He kissed her head as she got more comfortable in his chest, ready to take a nap on him.

For the rest of the day, both of them moved only when necessary, as neither wanted to leave the comfort the other was giving them right now.  
\---  
Much like when Loan was spending her nine months growing in the womb, Leni's child was much the same in causing anxiety, fear, and excitement. Unlike Lori, Leni didn't have classes to worry about since she didn't go to college, as her fashion expertise allowed her to quickly move up Reininger's corporate food chain and, eventually, become a designer for a new store brand they were launching. She wasn't earning the most money in the world, but it allowed her to get by on necessities. It helped that Rita and Lynn still allowed her to stay home, but to teach her the importance of budgeting, they had her pay her weight in utility use. Nothing quite makes a girl rethink how much electricity and water she uses like being told 'You have to pay for it.'

To his relief, Lincoln was experiencing a come-down on his sexual fantasies with his sisters. They were still there, but they weren't as prevalent nor as detailed as they were previously. They were also tamer in execution, going from porn as if directed by Tim Burton to a typical fantasy worthy of being listed under the 'Amateur' tab.

He was feeling better than he was before. Perhaps even good. What that sex did for him was rid him of the pent up frustrations he was feeling about his sisters. Maybe if he would've had sex in general, it would've given him the same results, but because it was with his sister, he no longer had to fantasize what it might be like to have sex with her. Now he knew. It made his body stop asking and craving. He actually felt like he could be normal again one day.

And he hated it.

The fact that he had to have sex with Leni in reality to make him stop thinking about her as much stung. His brotherly instincts flooded him since he realized she may have gotten pregnant from the encounter. What self-respecting brother fixes their mental state by actually nailing his family? Before, he was emotionless to everything. Now, he was appalled. Appalled at his sisters for initiating everything…and appalled at himself for not working to better his situation and try to move on from everything.

Self-loathing overrided his ability to properly think straight, never taking a moment to think that nothing really could be done to better his situation. He was taking his medication on a consistent schedule, he did activities with his sisters, and he worked to be a good father for Loan. He was working to better his situation, but things like these don't go away easy. The fact that therapy never helped him doesn't leave much room for doubt that this was going to be a long road to make himself better. There is no such thing as an easy way in this.

He tried to make the best of things by making baby recommendations to Leni, at least when their parents weren't around. To Leni's credit, she was actually making a conscious effort to not mention who the father was to their parents, helped along by a very important meeting she had with Lori the first night after she told all of her sisters that she was pregnant.  
\---  
 _"Leni…have you told mom and dad?"_

_"No. I was gonna wait until after I found out if it was a boy or a girl."_

_"What were you going to talk about?"_

_"Just the usual stuff. How long I've had it, what I plan to name it, all of that kind of stuff."_

_"Do you plan on telling them who it belongs to?"_

_"Uh…me?"_

_"No, the other person."_

_"Oooohhhhh. I…don't think I want to. I know Linky wouldn't want to be seen as the father, especially by them, but I don't like lying to them."_

_"Trust me, Leni. You have to. You may not like it, but you must. Unlike me, you don't have much in the way of a solid cover like I did with Bobby. You can try to use Jason as cover, but I'm not sure anyone could reasonably believe that you two were sexually active." That wasn't a dig, that was her observing how the two acted around each other._

_"So…what should I tell them?"_

_"Say you don't know who the father is. You drink wine, so say you had a little too much at a party while you were out one night, you met a guy, and things went from there. Please Leni. I'm not just saying this for you, but also for Lincoln and the baby. Because it was consensual, you're both on the hook for possible prison time at worst. You'll also never get to see your child after it is born. Do you really want that to happen? To any of you?" __  
\---  
Man, did Lori know how to make Leni listen to reason? The parents would never find out about the baby's origins, and though she had to suffer a really harsh reprimand from her parents about how stupid it was of her to get drunk at a party and hook up with a guy she didn't know, it was worth it to make sure she and Lincoln stayed out of jail and that she could see her child._

__It was a girl, and Leni already picked a name out. Liena._ _

__"Why that name?" asked Lincoln during a conversation that the two had after finding out._ _

__"Because it sounds like my name."_ _

__"Why not just go with Leni Jr. then?"_ _

__She looked down and rubbed her stomach with a motherly smile. "Because I want her to be herself, not another me."_ _

__That answer took Lincoln aback. Who knew that Leni would be that loving of her own kid enough to not want to mold her from the word 'go'? If this were Lola, she would've already have everything prepared, including what the baby's emotional state would be, and since this is Lola we're talking about, she would try to figure out how to do it, too._ _

__The good news in all of this was that, with both parents living at home, Liena would never have to leave the house like Loan always had to do. Lincoln could always see her, and he trusted his parents enough with his babysitting performance with Loan that he would be entrusted as Liena's official babysitter, too, again provided that it didn't get in the way of academics. It was another great moment of joy in Lincoln's life; despite not being able to be called 'dad', at least he would always be around to watch Liena grow for the first few years of her life. Plus, Loan would be over every now and then, too, as both parents would be looking for a trustworthy babysitter while they worked, having graduated college. Having both of his daughters with him at the same time? His heart couldn't even. The days that they were both with him were going to make him the happiest father in existence._ _

___They were one of the few things anymore that brought genuine happiness to his life.  
\---  
More good news. Since Leni wasn't dating anyone anymore, he didn't have to worry about another guy keeping his baby from him after the delivery. Just him, Leni, Lori (to help her through the process of labor), and finally, Liena. Just like Loan, she was beautiful. She was healthy, she was adorable, and she was noticeably more quiet than Loan. She came out like almost all babies do, crying as the cold air hit her skin as she left the comfort of her mother's womb, but that didn't seem to last more than a minute before being wrapped in a blanket and falling asleep._

__Like Loan, she took an instant shining to Lincoln. The moment he was handed her, it seemed as though she was immediately more comfortable in his arms. He was the first person to see her smile. He was falling in love, not romantically, but the kind of love a man feels when it hits him that he now has his own children to look after. It was the same feeling he got after holding Loan for the first time. He was seventeen, now, one year away from being an adult, but he already had the responsibilities of one. He didn't mind. He had his daughters, and he wouldn't trade them for anything. He was going to continue his quest to be the best secret father in the world._ _

__It started with the simple things, doing everything he needed to do to properly care for an infant. This time around, he allowed his sisters more access to care for and be around Liena. Loan's constant going between two homes routine made him monopolize as much time as he could with her, and as a result, unless they were explicitly helping Lincoln with her, his sisters never really had much alone time to just hold the baby in their arms and think about their roles as aunts. He was very much the priority figure in all of their minds, though, and the last thing they wanted to do was give him a reason to be scared about his own kid's well-being, so they treated her as well as they could. He had to admit that they seemed really good at taking care of her. He imagined Lily's time as an infant is what helped them all learn how to properly care for an infant, especially that one time where everyone tried to turn Lily into their own copycat. This was the event that everyone pointed to and screamed "Let's NOT do THAT, again!" in their heads._ _

__Of course, there was school and work, so outside babysitting was sometimes in order. When it wasn't, though, it was mommy and daddy showering the little girl with attention. That said, there were steaks in all of this, and too much parental gorping could rouse suspicion, so the baby always stayed in Leni's room when she came home from work. Lincoln got day duties when schoolwork didn't need to be done. Whenever both were in the same room as Liena, one would act indifferent about the situation while the other gave her attention. They actually made a good team, and any sister was allowed to see her whenever she wanted._ _

__When Loan was left in the care of her mother's family, all of the girls could swear that they've never seen Lincoln so happy. Having his daughters together with him, under the same roof, it made him feel like all was right in the world. He took them for walks, he fed both of them, he played with both of them, and they liked to play with each other, too. His daughters getting along with each other, even in infant form, only added to how content he was with everything in life. It made his sisters happy, too. To finally see actual love, care, and happiness radiate from him may have been arguably the best thing to happen to the family as a whole. The family's own weird, twisted version of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, who was lost, but returned home. The sisters were ready to celebrate in the same fashion the father did after his son came back to him._ _

__Of course, there was the other brother, the one who was resentful at the treatment his brother was getting that he felt he deserved more. The brother who stayed behind and continued to work, but felt he got nothing in return from his father. There wasn't really anyone like that in the family, but there was one sister who was not happy at all with how things were going in the house. That sister was Luna._ _

__It's not that she didn't love seeing her brother happy. Far from it. She felt he deserved something to smile about after all the shit he went through. But was this really how things should be going? Should he be stewing so much on his own failures that he won't even take the time to consider the idea that none of this should be seen as okay? Why was Lincoln being so lenient to the people that did him wrong? Was it possible that, secretly…there was a side to him that enjoyed everything that happened?_ _

__It annoyed her that Lincoln was so forgiving under these circumstances. He shouldn't be. She saw the effects of those fantasies he was having. She saw him hitting himself because he didn't want to keep thinking about them anymore. To see her own brother causing himself pain because of what his own thoughts were making him feel, that changes a person…and it only made her feel like more of a failure._ _

___What really had she done these past couple years to try and improve anything? Be Lincoln's second mother? Worry about him nonstop while he was internally suffering and number of inappropriate thoughts that were clearly taking a toll on him and her doing nothing to try and help? The sad fact of the matter is that, after the first encounter, when everybody found out, a little too much focus was put on trying to distract Lincoln from his thoughts rather than actually work to help him through it. The sisters had a nasty habit of misanalysing situations, and while they tried to implement better communication policies between themselves, they noticeably didn't do much in the way of actually working with Lincoln to guide him through this. What they did was the equivalent of trying to distract a smoker from having another cigarette by having that person try to focus on other activities, rather than taking the pack away and working to flush the nicotine out of the person's system. Luna felt so stupid for not realizing that Lincoln had issues that were bigger than she imagined, and Leni's pregnancy only sealed the deal.  
\---  
For the past few months, ever since Liena was born, she had been thinking about everything nonstop, and it couldn't have been a worse time for her to do so. Her band was recognized by a regional record label that was interested in signing them. They particularly like Luna and the versatility in her voice, which could be used in songs that ranged from heartfelt, soft singing to belting out unclean vocals for metal songs. She had to be on her A-game and here she was stewing on the issues that were plaguing her family._

__Today was an important day in that she had to make a run to the recording studio to spend a few hours working on a demo to send to the company, who wanted to hear some original music from them that could potentially be included on their somewhat major label debut album. She had woken up at five in the morning, since they wanted to go on a grind so that they could all be home by the early afternoon._ _

__When she got to the studio, she saw that the rest of her band had arrived before her. Her fellow guitarist and girlfriend Sam was there, as well as their drummer Salina, and bassist Greg. Chunk was also there, as well as Brendon, their friend from school and occasional sound engineer. He was also a bassist, and the person Luna wanted as the official bassist of the band, but Salina had brought Greg on as a way for him to have something preoccupy his mind, as he had just gotten out of jail on charges of possession. Luna had no idea what Salina was trying to do when she brought him on, as he was caught on several occasions these past few months with things like cocaine, but a bunch of begging was all Salina really needed to do to convince everyone that "Oh no, really. He's changed". Yeah, right. The only reason he was kept on was because Brendon was preoccupied with his own musical project, though he did say that, if they wanted, he would join the band._ _

__"Hey Lunes!"_ _

__"Hey Sam." They gave each other a quick, loving embrace._ _

__"Oh, I'm so excited! I was pretty restless last night 'cause I just wanted to get hear so bad!"_ _

__"Don't get too excited, luv. We still got to record the songs."_ _

__"Right, right. Sorry. I just can't believe someone has interest in picking us up!" You'd think Sam had already slammed a few cups of coffee, but she was running on pure dopamine right now at the thought of getting picked up. A dream was, quite possibly, going to be a reality._ _

__"Alright, then" said Chunk. "You lot better bring your best foot forward. I expect nothing but excellence."_ _

__And with that, they made their way to the actual recording rooms and spent the next eight hours cranking out a bunch of material. They weren't going to be polished today. This session was mainly for the purpose of getting ideas in and showing off what the band could do regarding different styles and sounds. The goal was four songs, each with a different sound to them. The genres they pulled from were Rock, Pop-Punk, Metalcore, and Alternate Rock._ _

__There was a lot of grinding, but thanks to the band meeting up a few days prior to discuss their plan of attack, they knew exactly how they wanted to go about things. Eight hours and a lunch break later, they had the "finished" product. They made two copies of the demo, one the scout could take back now, and one they would edit later on. Basically, the label wanted both sides to polish the work so they could see what each other's visions looked like for the band._ _

__After the scout left, they took time to unwind, with the waiting game being the game to play as they had to wait for at least a week while Brendon cleaned the demo up and the label making their own edits. He left a little after the scout did while the actual band stayed behind to relax. Luna was laying on her girlfriend's lap while Salina and Greg were sitting on another couch next to them, chatting._ _

__"So Luna…do you need to talk about something?"_ _

__"What do you mean?"_ _

__"You haven't seemed like you for a while now. I thought today, you would be excited, but you held the same tone you've had for what seems like months."_ _

__"Oh…sorry, Sam." Luna didn't realize how much her gloom attitude was showing. She wasn't frustrated today, like the days prior, more just along the lines of being generally upset about something. "There's been some stuff going on with the fam that I'm not comfortable talking about."_ _

__"It's alright." Sam bent down to give Luna a quick kiss on her head. "But if you ever do want to talk, you know I'll always be here."_ _

__"Thanks, babe."_ _

__"You want a hit of something to try and calm yourself down?" Greg asked, having overheard._ _

__"NO!" Luna shot up out of Sam's lap. "No, I don't want to make a mistake like that again!" She looked back at Sam. "Not again…"_ _

__The cocaine incident was a decision she never wanted to repeat. They did it in the heat of the moment after one of their best shows in Detroit. That incident alone made Luna see that night as one of the worst she ever had, completely because of the fallout the happened in the following days. They say sex on drugs is better than while clean, but neither of the girls felt that way. Sam wouldn't talk to her for several days, and Luna was practically living as a recluse in her own home, a home with ten siblings no less. They would've preferred their first time slow and awkward, the way most virgin couples imagine having it. The incident nearly broke the two up, but with some talking and promises, they worked things out and stayed together._ _

__After a few minutes had passed, Sam and Salina got up and left the room to go to the bathroom and talk while Luna and Greg stayed behind._ _

__"So, family troubles, huh? If it makes you feel any better, they can't be any worse than my family."_ _

__"You don't know my family, dude."_ _

__"I'm just saying, when you have a father like mine. Well, let's just say you would be counting your blessings." Luna chose to ignore that and rested her head back down on the sofa._ _

__"Are you sure you don't need a bit of a pick-me-up? You sounded good behind the mic, but in the future, it would help to be more into it." As much as she hated hearing that, he had a point. She wasn't at her peak like this and performed best when she was in good spirits. Lord knows how she would work all of the issues she was having out if they were actually signed._ _

__"C'mon. You need to let yourself feel good for a bit." He pulled out a small tube and a lighter, working to prepare something while she never pulled her head up to look. She just assumed he was smoking marijuana, seeing as the studio was frequented by several people in the Detroit metropolitan area (it was a ten minute drive from downtown), and you'd have to be pretty stupid to try and sneak illegal drugs into a place like this. "Here. Take a hit."_ _

__She looked up to see him holding a rather small tube with stuff in it and a lighter. She considered for a moment. What was going on at home was nothing short of nightmarish. Her own brother had gotten two of his sisters pregnant through no real fault of his own, the first time through rape and the second time through emotional exhaustion. The aftermath of the latter encounter even made her paranoid that he might actually be enjoying everything. He seemed a lot happier about being a father than she felt most boys would if they were put in the exact same situation. There was a lot she needed to sort through, and it wasn't a fun affair, either._ _

__But she wasn't about to let herself succumb to what she did the last time she was tempted. it nearly ruined her. What she had with Sam was nearly destroyed. She couldn't make that mistake again, not when it was her family at stake this time. She reminded herself of Lincoln, of how much she loved him. It was no secret that they had a pretty strong bond between them, one of the strongest between the siblings. How would he react if he found out about this? Did she have it in herself to let him down in the same way her older sisters did?_ _

__No, and the longer she stayed, the longer she would be tempted. She got up off of the couch and said "Thanks, but I have things I need to deal with" before heading out. She found Sam and Salina just outside the lounge area._ _

__"Hey. I'm sorry, but I can't help you guys pack up the gear. I need to get home and talk with my family about some things."_ _

__Sam could sense the sincerity and worry in her girlfriend's voice. "Sure. No problem. Do you need a lift from one of us?"_ _

__"No, it's fine. I'm just going to hail a cab. Thanks for the offer, though." She gave Sam a quick kiss before heading out, happy with the decision she made, but also nervous about what was to come._ _

**Author's Note:**

> The event that starts everything off is now in the books!
> 
> I'm actually surprised by this fandom's lack of fanfiction centering around the concept of the sisters having a brother complex. That just seems like such an obvious idea for a story, where the sisters act very protective of him because of all the times he has helped him out. Oh well. That just means more stuff to be written in the future, then.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed. If you did, hope to see you next chapter (which may take a couple weeks because yay finals week). If you didn't, thanks for giving it a try anyway.
> 
> Hope everyone has a wonderful day!


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